TEHRAN- China has strongly denounced accusations by NATO that it poses a challenge to the interests and security of the military alliance. Beijing says the military bloc "must not seek to sow chaos here in the Asia-Pacific".

While the two-day NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, was earmarked for wide ranging discussions over Ukraine, the summiteers’ final communique pointed a lot of fingers at China. 

The NATO communique released on Tuesday mentioned China a dozen times and claimed again that China poses a "systemic challenge" to Euro-Atlantic security.

NATO also accused China of not condemning Russia for the war in Ukraine. This is while the facts on the ground show the majority of the international community have not condemned Russia for the Ukraine crisis. 

NATO does not speak on behalf of the international community, observers have pointed out, and a greater number of nations around the world have condemned NATO for the Ukraine war and its failure to bring peace to the fighting. 

In fact, many countries accuse the United States and its Western allies for instigating the war. Washington has been prolonging the crisis by sending a record shipment of weapons to Kyiv to drag the conflict out for as long as possible and extend the suffering of Ukrainian civilians. 

The China says the Beijing-Moscow relationship is built on the basis of no-alliance, no-confrontation and no-targeting of any third party.Experts believe Ukraine is being used as a proxy for the U.S. to contain Russia. 

Among the latest U.S. weapons delivered to Ukrainian forces are internationally banned cluster munitions that have devastating effects on civilians, as they shower scores of smaller bomblets on the ground over a wide area; many of which remain undetonated for years.

The White House says Ukraine will use these weapons of mass destruction in its counter-offensive against Russia. 

Ironically, the counter-offensive is being fought on Ukrainian territory, which means any cluster bombs fired by Ukrainian forces will fall on their own soil whilst having a serious effect on the lives and health of Ukrainian civilians for decades to come.

This was not discussed at the NATO summit, despite international condemnation over the shipment of the weapons as well as criticism from U.S. Western allies.

Among the accusations published by the summit's final communique include the “the deepening strategic partnership between China and Russia and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order run counter to [NATO’s] values and interests.” 

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the Beijing-Moscow relationship is built on the basis of no-alliance, no-confrontation and no-targeting of any third party.

A spokesperson for the ministry has said that ties "rises above the model of military and political alliance in the Cold War era and provides a model for major-country relations. This is fundamentally different from the exclusive groupings and bloc confrontation practiced by some NATO countries."

The spokesperson has also urged NATO "to stop making groundless accusations and provocative rhetoric targeting China, quit the outdated Cold War mentality, and ditch the wrongdoing of seeking absolute security. We have seen what NATO has done to Europe, and NATO must not seek to sow chaos here in the Asia-Pacific or elsewhere in the world."

The NATO communique claimed the People's Republic of China (PRC) challenged its interests, security and values with its "ambitions and coercive policies".

"The PRC employs a broad range of political, economic, and military tools to increase its global footprint and project power, while remaining opaque about its strategy, intentions and military build-up," NATO heads of state said in their communique.

"The PRC's malicious hybrid and cyber operations and its confrontational rhetoric and disinformation target Allies and harm Alliance security." 

China asks to NATO to quit the outdated Cold War mentality and ditch the wrongdoing of seeking absolute security.The Chinese mission to Europe has also responded by issuing a statement that said all the China-related content of the communique completely ignored the basic facts, distorted China's position and policies, and deliberately discredited China.

"We firmly oppose and reject this," it said.

During the summit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claimed that while China was not a NATO "adversary", it was increasingly challenging the rules-based international order with its "coercive behavior."

"China is increasingly challenging the rules-based international order, refusing to condemn Russia's war against Ukraine, threatening Taiwan, and carrying out a substantial military build-up," Stoltenberg told reporters.

The Chinese mission said Beijing was unwavering in its opposition to NATO's "eastward movement into the Asia-Pacific region", while further warning that any action threatening Beijing's rights would be met with a response.

"Any act that jeopardizes China's legitimate rights and interests will be met with a resolute response," it said.

In the communique, NATO also claimed that China seeks to control key technological and industrial sectors, critical infrastructure, and strategic materials and supply chains, and that Beijing also uses its economic leverage to create strategic dependencies and enhance its influence.

China's Xinhua state news agency hit back, saying in an analysis that the wars and conflicts involving NATO states suggest the bloc is a "grave challenge" to global peace and stability.

"Despite all the chaos and conflict already inflicted, NATO is spreading its tentacles to the Asia-Pacific region with an express aim of containing China."

The China Media Group has also said in a report that NATO is no longer confined to its traditional domains and missions but aggressively setting sights and expanding footprints in the Asia-Pacific region to create hostile anti-China policies to feed the appetite of the U.S. in trying to maintain America's global hegemony. 

Compared with the "strategic concept" document adopted at the NATO Madrid Summit in June 2022, this current version mentioned China much more frequently and posed a preaching mentality of a morally superior nature in a condescending manner, the report added.

It also asked why NATO is pointing its fingers at China again? This is not surprising. The U.S.-led military alliance has a fundamental motivation for survival, which is the need for new adversaries.

From the several publications of NATO's strategic concept documents that have been updated after the end of the Cold War, almost every update has followed the foreign policy of the U.S., reflecting the aggressive strategic demands of Washington.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, like its predecessor, has mistakenly identified China as the most consequential strategic competitor and publicly proposed an Indo-Pacific strategy with NATO participation.

Under firm U.S. command, NATO has grown to take on a hardline approach toward China with the aim of expanding its presence in the Asia-Pacific region in what experts say is the false branding of Beijing as a rival to the U.S.

Stoltenberg has stated that in the future, the military bloc should contain, in his own words, the China threat. This risky policy is now an important foundation for NATO’s survival.

Under increasing pressure from Washington, NATO no longer serves European security. Rather it defends the interests of the United States. This is while the accusations levelled against China are not even shared by many of its own members.  

China has never initiated a conflict, nor has it ever occupied the land of another country or waged a proxy war for that matter. Instead, for more than three decades now, Beijing has dispatched more than tens of thousands of security personnel for peace keeping missions under the United Nations leadership.

On the contrary, the U.S., under which NATO members are now taking orders from, has broken all the rules-based international orders by bypassing the UN Security Council to launch wars against sovereign states such as Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria to name a few. This has led to the casualties of millions of civilians and displaced tens of millions of others.

The latest case in point being Ukraine.