NATO leaders declare China a global security challenge

US President Joe Biden and other NATO heads of states and governments pose for a family photo during the NATO summit at the Alliance’s headquarters, in Brussels, Belgium on Monday. Pic/AFP

NATO leaders on Monday declared that China poses a constant security challenge and is working to undermine global order, and they said they're worried about how fast the Chinese are developing nuclear missiles.

In a summit statement, the leaders said that China's goals and "assertive behaviour present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to alliance security."

While the 30 heads of state and government avoided calling China a rival, they expressed concern about what they said were its ‘coercive policies,' the opaque ways it is modernising its armed forces and its use of disinformation.

They called on Beijing to uphold its international commitments and to act responsibly in the international system.

The statement comes as President Joe Biden has stepped up his effort to rally allies to speak in a more unified voice about China's human rights record, its trade practices and its military's increasingly assertive behaviour that has unnerved US allies in the Pacific.

Biden pushed for the G-7 communique there that called out what it said were forced labor practices and other human rights violations impacting Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in the western Xinjiang province. The president said he was satisfied with the communique, although differences remain among the allies about how forcefully to criticise Beijing.

The new Brussels communique states plainly that the NATO nations "will engage China with a view to defending the security interests of the alliance."

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