China lashed out at NATO on Thursday, accusing it of smearing the country after the Western alliance called it a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war in Ukraine — the first time it has accused Beijing of involvement in the conflict.
China “cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation,” NATO said in a communique Wednesday at its summit marking its 75th anniversary in Washington, D.C., hinting at unspecified consequences if Beijing continued its course.
The communique called on China “to cease all material and political support to Russia’s war effort.” That included all “transfer of dual-use materials” — supplies that can be converted for war — “such as weapons components, equipment, and raw materials that serve as inputs for Russia’s defense sector,” it said.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg later told reporters that this was “the strongest message NATO allies have ever sent on China’s contributions to Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.”
NATO’s statement was “filled with Cold War mentality and belligerent rhetoric,” which was “provocative” and filled with “obvious lies and smears,” a spokesperson for China’s mission to the European Union said in a statement early Thursday. “We firmly reject and deplore these accusations and have lodged serious representations with NATO.”
