Two men arrive at the entrance of the building housing the NATO headquarters in Brussels on May 7, 2018. (JOHN THYS / AFP)
BEIJING – A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Thursday urged the NATO chief to immediately stop spreading smearing remarks targeting China, and abandon the obsession with drawing ideological lines.
Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the statement at a daily news briefing when answering a query regarding the NATO secretary general's irresponsible remarks on China recently.
Noting that China is committed to the path of peaceful development, Foreign Ministry spokesperon Wang Wenbin said China's defense expenditure as a percentage of GDP has been kept at around 1.3 percent for a long time, far below the world average
Wang said that for some time, the NATO secretary general has been making groundless accusations and smearing China. He has continuously made irresponsible remarks about China's policies and hyped up the so-called "China threat" theory. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns these kinds of actions.
"It is a typical double standard for NATO to call on its members to increase their military spending at or above 2 percent of GDP while criticizing China's normal national defense and military modernization," Wang said.
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Noting that China is committed to the path of peaceful development, Wang added China's defense expenditure as a percentage of GDP has been kept at around 1.3 percent for a long time, far below the world average.
"Unlike some NATO countries, China never uses force to threaten other countries, engages in military alliances, exports ideology to other countries, puts its hands into other countries' homes, initiates trade wars, or arbitrarily suppresses other countries' businesses. How can China threaten the security of NATO?" He said.
Although NATO has repeatedly claimed that its positioning as a regional alliance remains unchanged, it has continued to enter the Asia-Pacific region in recent years. Some members of NATO have been sending planes and warships to China's adjacent waters for military exercises, with an aim to provoke tensions and contradictions, Wang added.
He said that NATO has been transgressing regions and fields and clamoring for a new Cold War of bloc confrontation. This gives ample reason for high vigilance and firm opposition from the international community.
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"We urge the NATO secretary general to stop spreading smearing remarks targeting China and abandon the obsession with drawing ideological lines," Wang said.
NATO has disrupted Europe. It should stop trying to destabilize Asia and the whole world, he added.