BEIJING, July 28 -- China urges NATO to stop making up lies, stirring up camp confrontation and creating tensions, said Senior Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, at a regular press conference in Beijing on Thursday.
It is reported that the recent NATO Summit in Madrid released a new strategic concept document, which mentioned China for the first time, defining it as a “systemic challenge to NATO”, and laying heavy accusations on its defense building.
In response to that, the spokesperson said that NATO’s new strategic concept document confounds right and wrong, stirs up confrontation, and makes irresponsible remarks and arbitrary accusations against China’s normal military development and national defense policy. China is firmly opposed to it.
He stressed that China adheres to the path of peaceful development, actively promotes the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and remains a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, a defender of international order and a provider of public goods. The construction and development of the Chinese military is an objective requirement to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, as well as a real need to safeguard world peace and stability and provide more international public security products. In recent years, the Chinese military has played a more active role in international peacekeeping, far-sea escort, humanitarian rescue and anti-pandemic cooperation, and made important contributions to safeguarding world peace. Facts have proved time and again that the development of the Chinese military brings opportunities for world peace rather than challenges.
The spokesperson pointed out that NATO, on the other hand, since its establishment, has launched and participated in wars and killed innocent people from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Kosovo, from Iraq to Afghanistan and Libya. The wars launched and participated in by NATO after 2001 have killed 900,000 people and displaced tens of millions of refugees. The Chinese people will never forget the atrocity of NATO’s bombing the Chinese Embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 23 years ago. NATO is the abbreviation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but in recent years, it has come to the Asia-Pacific region to throw its weight around, constantly stirring up the camp confrontation and continuously threatening regional security. It should be said that wherever NATO goes, it brings turmoil. In essence, NATO is a “war machine”, a “military tool” for the US to pursue hegemony, and a “systematic challenge” to world peace and stability.
China warns NATO that suppression and containment will not scare the Chinese military, and lying and smearing will not deceive the people around the world. “The era of bullying China has gone forever,” said the spokesperson. "We urge NATO to stop making up lies, stirring up camp confrontation and creating tensions. China will firmly safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests, and will not allow outside forces to mess up the Asia-Pacific region."