Beijing accused the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Tuesday of exaggerating the "Chinese threat theory" and seeking to "create confrontations", after the leaders of the alliance countries expressed at a summit in Brussels their "concern" about Chinese ambitions, which they said constitute "challenges to the foundations of the order." international".

In the closing statement for the first summit attended by US President Joe Biden, NATO leaders said in a statement that "China's stated ambitions and hegemonic behavior pose systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and related areas of NATO security."

Biden urged NATO leaders to stand up to what he called "China's tyranny and its growing military power", reversing the focus of the alliance built to defend Europe against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

peaceful development

China said in its response, posted on the website of its mission to the European Union, that the NATO statement "distorted" China's peaceful development, misjudged the international situation and referred to a "Cold War mentality," adding that it has always been committed to peaceful development.

"We will not pose a systematic challenge to anyone, but if someone wants to pose a systematic challenge to us, we will not stand idly by," the mission accused the alliance of seeking to "fabricate confrontations."

China has 20 times fewer nuclear warheads than the countries that are members of NATO.

For his part, US President Joe Biden said, "Russia and China seek to sow discord between us, but our alliance is solid. NATO is united and the United States is back."

The leaders of the Group of Seven major industrialized countries, have been sharply critical of China over its human rights record in Xinjiang.

They called for a large measure of autonomy to be maintained in Hong Kong, and demanded a full investigation into the origin of the coronavirus in China.

China's embassy in London said it resolutely opposed the reports about Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, adding that it distorted facts and revealed "the evil intentions of some countries such as the United States."

mitigation?

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg tried to soften the impact of the summit's final declaration, saying that "China is not our adversary or enemy. But we must face the challenges it poses to our security."

"We have seen an increase in China's military armament and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea," he said, adding, "China does not share our values ​​and is suppressing freedom fighters in Hong Kong and the Uighur minority."

He also spoke about Russia, and said that relations with it are at their lowest level since the Cold War, noting that the most important message we "send to Russia is that we are united and that it will not be able to divide us."