Senior NATO officer warns of ‘shocking’ Chinese military clout amid tensions with Beijing
A senior NATO officer has raised the alarm about what he claimed to be China's "shocking" military development and growing diplomatic influence as the US-led military alliance seeks to adopt a tougher stance against Beijing.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart William Peach, head of NATO's military committee, made the comment in an interview with the Financial Times on Friday, saying the NATO member states needed to do more to decide what China's military power might mean for them.
"It is quite shocking how quickly China has built ships, how much China has modernized its air force, how much it has invested in cyber and other forms of information management, not least facial recognition,” Peach said.
"I think it's very important to keep an eye on that. What do you do if you're a leader in China with a modernized powerful large force? You deploy it, you move it around."
Beach also pointed to Beijing’s expanding diplomatic influence through various missions, such as its “enormous” embassy in Brussels, which is also the headquarters of the European Union and where NATO is based.
“You now have these large monuments of embassies with very large defensive divisions, populated mostly by general officers. And then you will simply notice, as I will after nearly 50 years of service, what is the purpose of all this?” the senior NATO officer asked.
Responding to Beach’s comments, China’s mission to the European Union said in a statement that military exchanges and cooperation with other countries are “an important part of China’s overall diplomacy,” and that Beijing is “actively developing constructive military relations with other countries.”
NATO leaders accused China at their summit in Brussels earlier in the month of going against the international order, claiming that Beijing was spreading disinformation and expanding its nuclear arsenal.
The US and China have been at odds over a range of issues, including China’s alleged rights abuses in the western region of Xinjiang, anti-Beijing demonstrations in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong, China’s territorial claims on Chinese Taipei and most of the South China Sea as well as the origin of the coronavirus.
Beijing hoped for an improvement in relations under US President Joe Biden, who succeeded Donald Trump in January, but the new administration has shown no sign of backing down on hardline policies toward China.
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