File Photo: VCG

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday that the denunciation by Alice Weidel, head of the Alternative for Germany(AfD) party, is rational and penetrating. The remarks came in response to Weidel's allegations that the West made a historical mistake by promising membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to Ukraine.

Media reported that Weidel, recently addressed the German Bundestag, denouncing that it was a historical failure to offer Ukraine the possibility of joining NATO rather than pushing for the country to be a neutral buffer nation between the alliance and Russia.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, listed opinions from four other US top diplomats and experts, saying that it is disappointing that all these impartial, objective and rational analysis did not help to influence NATO's policies in a realistic approach. 

Zhao said that, dating back to 1997, former US ambassador to the Soviet Union, George F. Kennan, warned that continuous eastward expansion of NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold War era. 

Quoting former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, Zhao remarked that Ukraine "must not be either side's outpost against the other" and recalled what US strategist John Mearsheimer said in 2015, noting that, as a great power, Russia would never allow the US and the West to pull Ukraine into the western side. Zhao added that even Thomas Friedman, a US expert on international issues, recently said that "America and NATO are not innocent bystanders" in the Ukraine crisis and "the ill-considered decision by the US in the 1990s to expand NATO" was one of the "huge logs fueling this fire."

Zhao emphasized that given NATO's continuous eastward expansion, Russia's legitimate security demands ought to be taken seriously and properly addressed.

"China will continue to play a constructive role in promoting peace and dialogue and carry out necessary mediation with the international community when needed," Zhao reiterated.