China has warned NATO agains “provoking confrontation” after the US-led military alliance sharply criticized Beijing, accusing it of being a “decisive enabler” of the war in Ukraine and expressing “profound concern” over China’s partnership with Moscow.
In a statement released during the NATO summit in Washington, Beijing was described as a “decisive enabler” of the war in Ukraine, and the military organization also announced that it was deeply concerned about cooperation between China and Russia and that NATO would therefore focus more on China in the future.
The Chinese side, however, says the statement is full of “warmongering rhetoric” and calls on the military alliance to “stop hyping up the so-called China threat and provoking confrontation and rivalry, and do more to contribute to world peace and stability”.
Instead of condemning Russia and agreeing to Western sanctions against it, China has chosen to take a more neutral stance in the conflict, continuing to cooperate and trade with Russia – while declaring that it is not sending weapons or “lethal assistance” to either side.
Many Western leaders are very upset that China’s trade with Russia has been a major contributor to the limited impact of sanctions against the country and that, despite great efforts, it has not been able to isolate the country economically to the extent desired.
“Incitement and smear campaign”
NATO countries demand that China “cease all material and political support to Russia’s war effort” and believe that Beijing “cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation”.
Although China does not export weapons, NATO claims that it provides equipment, microelectronics and tools that allegedly enable Russia to “to build the missiles, to build the bombs, to build the aircraft, to build the weapons they use to attack Ukraine”.
However, the accusations are rejected by Beijing, which points out that “as we all know, China is not the creator of the crisis in Ukraine”.
– The declaration of the NATO summit in Washington is full of Cold War mentality and belligerent rhetoric, and China-related content is full of provocations, lies, incitement and smears, a spokesman said, adding that China’s position in the conflict is to “promote peace talks and political settlement”.
