Beijing tells Nato to stop hyping up China threat

China has accused Nato of slandering its peaceful development after alliance leaders warned about "systemic challenges" coming from Beijing.

China's actions, including expanding its nuclear arsenal, threatened "rules-based international order", Nato said.

It was the first time Nato had placed China at the centre of its agenda.

In its response, China said its defence policy was "defensive in nature" and urged Nato to "devote more of its energy to promoting dialogue".

"Our pursuit of defence and military modernisation is justified, reasonable, open and transparent," China's mission to the European Union said in a statement.

It added that Nato should view China's development in a "rational manner" and "stop taking China's legitimate interests and rights as an excuse to manipulate bloc politics, create confrontation and fuel geopolitical competition".

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Nato's statement came at the end of a one-day summit in Brussels on Monday.

It marked Joe Biden's first Nato meeting as US president.

The powerful political and military alliance between 30 European and North American countries sees Russia as a main threat. Mr Biden is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday.Why is Nato focusing on China?
According to the summit's communiqué (concluding statement), China's "stated ambitions and assertive behaviour present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to Alliance security".

"We remain concerned with China's frequent lack of transparency and use of disinformation," it says.Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg told reporters: "We're not entering a new Cold War and China is not our adversary, not our enemy."

But, he added: "We need to address together, as the alliance, the challenges that the rise of China poses to our security".

China is one of the world's leading military and economic powers, whose ruling Communist Party has a tight grip on politics, daily life and much of society.

The Chinese military currently has the largest armed forces in the world, with over two million personnel on active duty.

Nato has become increasingly concerned about the growing military capabilities of China, which it sees as a threat to the security and democratic values of its members.

In recent years, the alliance has also grown wary of China's activities in Africa, where it has set up army bases.

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What is Nato?
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, known as Nato, is the world's most powerful regional defence alliance
It was set up in 1949, after World War Two, to counter the threat of communist expansion
It was founded on the principle of collective defence between allies
It originally had 12 members, but now has 30 - made up of European countries and the US and Canada
Nato's current missions include offering training and assistance to Afghan security forces, maintaining a peacekeeping force in Kosovo and supporting counter-terrorism work in Iraq
As well as military operations, Nato has supported relief efforts after crises like Hurricane Katrina
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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "When it comes to China, I don't think anybody around the table wants to descend into a new Cold War with China."

Nato's tough message on China followed criticism of the country by the G7, a group of major economies that met for a summit in England last week.In a communiqué G7 leaders criticised China for alleged human rights abuses and demanded a transparent investigation of the origins of Covid-19 in the country.

In response, China accused the G7 of "lies, rumours and baseless accusations" in a statement through its embassy in the UK.China has accused the G7 of "political manipulation" after it criticised Beijing over a range of issues.

In a joint statement at the end of a three-day summit, leaders of the G7 countries urged China to "respect human rights and fundamental freedoms".

Issues highlighted included abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority group and the crackdown on Hong Kong pro-democracy activists.

China's embassy in the UK accused the G7 of "baseless accusations".

"Stop slandering China, stop interfering in China's internal affairs, and stop harming China's interests," a spokesman said on Monday.

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The statement by the G7 - the world's seven largest so-called advanced 
economies - included pledges on a number of issues, 
such as ending the coronavirus pandemic and steps to tackle climate change, as well as references to China.

The group, made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, called on China to respect human rights in Xinjiang, a north-western region that is home to the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

Experts generally agree that China has detained as many as a million Uyghurs and other Muslims and imprisoned hundreds of thousands more in its crackdown in Xinjiang, which began in 2017. There have been widespread reports of physical and psychological torture inside prisons and detention camps in the region. China denies the allegations.

The G7 statement also called for rights and freedoms to be respected in Hong Kong, where a new security law passed by China last year has made it easier to punish protesters. The leaders said Hong Kong should retain a "high degree of autonomy", as established under agreements when it was handed back to China in 1997.

The statement underscored the "importance of peace and stability" across the Taiwan Strait - a heavily-policed waterway that separates China and Taiwan. China sees democratic Taiwan as a breakaway province, but Taiwan sees itself as a sovereign state.

It also demanded a new investigation in China into the origins of Covid-19.

US President Joe Biden said he was "satisfied" with the statement's language on China.

But the Chinese embassy in the UK opposed the mentions of Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, which it said distorted the facts and exposed the "sinister intentions of a few countries such as the United States".

A stronger message on China is expected to be issued by leaders of the Nato military alliance at a meeting on Monday.

"We know that China does not share our values... we need to respond together as an alliance," Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said as he arrived at the one-day summit in Brussels.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the country would feature in Nato's communique "in a more robust way than we've ever seen before".