Ahead of G-20 Ministers’ Meeting, China Slams US, NATO – The Diplomat

China Energy | Diplomacy | East Asia

China launched a scathing assault on the U.S. and NATO on Wednesday, days earlier than a gathering between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese language Overseas Minister Wang Yi.

Overseas Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian’s feedback underscore the more and more fractious relationship, together with China’s more and more confrontational method to overseas relations that heatedly rejects criticism.

Finally week’s NATO summit in Spain, Blinken accused China of “searching for to undermine the rules-based worldwide order.”

In his feedback Wednesday, Zhao mentioned the “so-called rules-based worldwide order is definitely a household rule made by a handful of nations to serve the U.S. self-interest.”

Washington “observes worldwide guidelines solely because it sees match,” he mentioned, including that NATO “should surrender its blind religion in army would possibly.”

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U.S.-China relations are dominated by disputes over points from commerce and human rights to Taiwan and Beijing’s territorial claims within the South China Sea.

In the meantime, China has refused to sentence Russia’s four-month-long warfare towards Ukraine, criticized sanctions introduced towards Moscow by NATO members, and accused Washington and its allies of scary the battle.

Russia and China have strengthened political, financial, and army ties, whereas aligning their overseas insurance policies to oppose the affect of liberal democracies. Weeks earlier than Russia’s February invasion, Chinese language chief Xi Jinping hosted his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for a gathering at which they pledged a partnership that had “no limits.”

At its summit, NATO for the primary time singled out China as one in every of its strategic priorities for the following decade.

“China is considerably build up its army forces, together with nuclear weapons, bullying its neighbors, threatening Taiwan … monitoring and controlling its personal residents by superior expertise, and spreading Russian lies and disinformation,” Secretary-Common Jens Stoltenberg mentioned after presenting NATO’s 10-year Strategic Idea.

In his feedback at Wednesday’s every day briefing, Zhao mentioned the U.S. “has been working intently with NATO to hype up competitors with China and stoke group confrontation.”

“The historical past of NATO is the one about creating conflicts and waging wars … arbitrarily launching wars and killing harmless civilians, even to at the present time,” Zhao mentioned. “Information have confirmed that it isn’t China that poses a systemic problem to NATO, and as an alternative it’s NATO that brings a looming systemic problem to world peace and safety.”

Blinken is predicted to fulfill with Wang on Saturday at a gathering of overseas ministers from the Group of 20 main wealthy and growing nations on the Indonesian island of Bali.