Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin Photo: fmprc.gov.cn

Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg has been making groundless accusations and smearing attacks against China, making reckless comments on China's political system and domestic and foreign policies, and promoting a "China-threat" theory, which China firmly opposes and strongly condemns, declared the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Thursday.

Wang Wenbin, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, made the remarks during a routine press conference on Thursday, responding to inquiries on the NATO chief's recent remarks calling China an "authoritarian regime" and a threat to the alliance security during an interview on Tuesday. 

NATO, on one hand, urged its members to increase military expense, requesting their defense budget to reach or exceed 2 percent of their GDP, while on the other hand, it has been pointing fingers at China's legitimate building of its own national defense and military equipment, which shows a blatant double-standard, Wang said.

China adheres to a path of peace and development, upholds a national defense policy that is of a defensive nature, and has always maintained its nuclear force at the minimum level required for national security. The proportion of China's defense budget in GDP has remained at around 1.3 percent for a long time, far below the world average, Wang added. 

Wang also questioned that China does not use force to threaten other countries like some NATO countries do, it does not engage in military alliances, does not export ideologies, and is never the one to take the initiative in initiating trade wars, has never meddled with other country's internal affairs and has never unreasonably suppressed other countries' enterprises. So how can China threaten NATO security in any way? 

Although NATO has openly claimed that its position as a regional alliance has not changed and does not seek for expansion to other regions, it has been, in recent years, constantly entering Asia-Pacific regions, Wang said. 

"Some NATO countries repeatedly send aircraft and warships to the waters surrounding China, creating tensions, and provoking conflicts. NATO's constant expansion in regions and fields and the promotion of a 'new Cold War', should cause high alert in other countries and deserve firm opposition from the international community," the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson stated.

Wang urged Stoltenberg to immediately stop spreading unfounded rumors against China, and abandon the practice of drawing imaginary ideological lines. "NATO has already messed up Europe, and it must not be allowed to do the same to Asia and the rest of the world."

Wang also noted that while Europe has been suffering heavily from the Russia-Ukraine conflicts, the US is making profits, with weapon manufacturers popping their champagne bottles to celebrate, and the US grains and energy industries making quite some handsome earnings. At the same time the US has only taken in 12 Ukraine refugees in three months.

"The facts have proven that conflicts cannot be simply addressed by just imposing sanctions, nor can continuation of shipping weapons achieve peace," Wang said. 

China supports Russia and Ukraine in carrying on their peace talks, calling on the European Union and NATO to open a dialogue with Russia to push forward the establishment of a balanced, effective and sustainable security framework in Europe, Wang urged.