ISTANBUL

China on Thursday lashed out at NATO for the “groundless accusations and provocative remarks” in its new Strategic Concept, urging the alliance to drop its “outdated Cold War mentality.” 

The 2022 Strategic Concept, a blueprint for the alliance for the next decade approved at its Madrid summit a day earlier, accuses China of pursuing “coercive policies” that threaten NATO's “interests, security and values.”

“NATO’s so-called new Strategic Concept document disregards the facts, confuses right and wrong … smears China’s foreign policy, makes irresponsible remarks about China’s normal military development and national defense policy,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a news conference in Beijing.

“China is seriously concerned and firmly opposed to this,” he said, adding that NATO is “encouraging” confrontation with its Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice.

NATO has also raised concerns over “China’s malicious hybrid and cyber operations and its confrontational rhetoric and disinformation,” while also accusing Beijing of trying “to control key technological and industrial sectors, critical infrastructure, and strategic materials and supply chains.”

It cites the “deepening strategic partnership” between China and Russia as a threat, saying that “their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order run counter to our values and interests.”

“We would like to warn NATO that it is completely futile to play up and hype the so-called China threat,” said Zhao.

“NATO should immediately stop groundless accusations and provocative remarks against China, and abandon the outdated Cold War mentality,” he said, urging the world’s largest military alliance to stop seeking “absolute security and the dangerous act of disrupting Europe and the Asia-Pacific.”

Zhao said NATO should instead focus on doing “something good for the security and stability of Europe and the world.”

“China has never invaded any country, never engaged in proxy wars, and never joined or formed any military bloc,” he asserted, accusing NATO of “launching wars everywhere, killing innocent civilians, and smearing its hands with the blood of the people of the world.”

“NATO is the real ‘systemic challenge’ to world security and stability,” he added.

Zhao said NATO is extending “its tentacles to the Asia-Pacific again, in an attempt to export the Cold War mentality and replicate camp confrontation.”

“The Asia-Pacific is a highland of peace and stability and a land of cooperation and development. Any actions that undermine the peace, stability, unity and cooperation of the region will meet the common opposition of the Chinese people and the people of Asia-Pacific countries, and are doomed to fail,” he said.