NATO leaders on Monday declared that China poses a constant security challenge and is working to undermine global order, and they said they’re worried about how fast the Chinese are developing nuclear missiles. In a summit statement, the leaders said China’s goals and “assertive behaviour present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to alliance security.”
While the 30 heads of state and government avoided calling China a rival, they expressed concern about what they said were its “coercive policies,” the opaque ways it is modernising its armed forces and its use of disinformation. The statement comes as President Joe Biden has stepped up his effort to rally allies to speak in a more unified voice about China’s human rights record, its trade practices and its military’s increasingly assertive behaviour that has unnerved US allies in the Pacific. China denounced a joint statement by the G7 leaders that rebuked Beijing as a gross interference in the country’s internal affairs. The Chinese Embassy to the United Kingdom on Monday issued a statement saying the G-7 communique “deliberately slandered China and arbitrarily interfered in China’s internal affairs,” and exposed the “sinister intentions of a few countries, such as the United States.” There was no immediate reaction from the Chinese government to the new NATO statement.
