NATO’s attempt to withdraw China from Russia’s influence has failed. Western warnings against siding with Moscow have not only fallen on deaf ears, they have prompted an all-powerful backlash from Beijing.
When Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg recently expressed his dismay at China’s unwillingness to condemn Russia’s war against Ukraine, he described Beijing’s stance as a “serious challenge” to the North Atlantic Alliance, which “must reckon with China’s growing influence and coercion Policies affect our security.” Chinese diplomats immediately fired back.
On Monday, Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, offered Stoltenberg a lengthy retaliation that again called NATO outdated and accused it of damaging post-Cold War Europe’s security order. The bloc is now also trying to destabilize China’s immediate neighborhood, Zhao said.
This combination of photos shows NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (left) and Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian. At a regular news conference in Beijing on April 11, 2022, Zhao took aim at Stoltenberg’s remarks after the alliance leader criticized China for its unwillingness to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. FRANCOIS WALSCHAERTS/GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images
“For some time now, the NATO chief has been disregarding facts and confusing black with white when making baseless allegations, slanders and attacks against China,” he said, without naming Stoltenberg. “He has made irresponsible comments on China’s foreign policy, touted the ‘China threat,’ and recently even used coercion against China.”
“NATO should immediately stop spreading disinformation and provocative remarks against China and abandon the confrontational approach of drawing ideological lines,” Zhao said. “NATO has disrupted Europe. It should stop trying to destabilize Asia and the whole world.”
Sure, China had already allied with Russia against NATO in January – weeks before the invasion began – ahead of Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing to announce the “borderless” partnership between their nations. In the seven weeks since the war began, Chinese leaders have provided political cover for the Kremlin at the highest levels of world government, abstained on UN resolutions, and coordinated with Russia even as a majority of member states condemned Moscow’s war and later suspended it from the Human Rights Council – the first permanent member of the Security Council with such a record.
Faced with questions from the press about the Bucha killings and the rocket attack on Kramatorsk Station, China remained largely unmoved, saying just enough to support an independent investigation, while not forgetting to draw attention to “vastly differing claims” made by Moscow and Kyiv – a stance that threatens to undermine efforts to garner international support for Ukraine and its people. In addition, China has continued to oppose the West’s sweeping sanctions against Russia, punishment promoted by Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government.
But as pressure mounts from NATO – and the EU – alongside the deepening humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, China has decided to hit back with a government-wide campaign seeking to challenge Western suspicions about its quasi-alliance with Russia. Government officials, diplomats, state news outlets and political commentators are peddling Russia’s line while creating some of their own to undermine the unity of the alliance, which Beijing sees as a threat to its own geopolitical interests in Asia.
Zhao called NATO’s security policy “obsolete”. The alliance has “reduced itself to a country’s tool for hegemony,” he said, an obvious reference to the United States.
“NATO, a military organization in the North Atlantic, has traveled to the Asia-Pacific region in recent years to flex its muscles and provoke tensions. NATO has crossed regions and fields, clamoring for a new Cold War of bloc confrontation. This gives ample grounds for high vigilance and firm resistance from the international community,” said the spokesman, who argued China’s rise is more of an opportunity than a threat to the world.
Maria Korechko, right, mourns the loss of her son, Ukrainian soldier Andriy Sagornyakon April 10, 2022 in Kamianka-Buzka, Ukraine. Since the beginning of the Russian attack on February 24, the estimated military casualties for the two sides have differed greatly. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The recent moods of the outward-looking Ministry of Foreign Affairs have given China’s state-affiliated media a guideline on how to formulate renewed criticism of the West. Leading the narratives, which also appear in the country’s broadcasters and major newspapers, the official Xinhua news agency accused NATO of undermining peace talks between Ukraine and Russia while prolonging the war with its arms supplies.
“Following the outbreak of the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, NATO allies hastily joined Washington in preventing a political solution, fanning the flames and widening the regional conflict, providing Ukraine with money and weapons and Russia with sweeping and indiscriminate sanctions,” an April 10 Xinhua editorial wrote, apparently implying that a rapid collapse of Ukraine and territorial concessions to Putin would be more favorable outcomes than a protracted European war that would also affect the Chinese economy.