The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday urged the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to refrain from attempts at destabilizing Asia or the world at large.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a regular press briefing in response to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's recent allegation that China poses "a systemic challenge" to the national security of "democracies."

"NATO has already caused chaos in Europe. Don't attempt to do that in Asia or the world," he said.

China has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order, said Zhao, adding that the country will continue its peaceful development.

"China's development is an opportunity for the whole world, not a threat to anyone," he said.

The spokesperson said NATO should stop spreading false and provocative remarks against China and abandon its confrontational approach of drawing lines based on ideology.

Zhao said that China is "strongly dissatisfied with and resolutely opposed to" what the spokesperson called NATO's groundless accusations and smear attacks against China recently, and has repeatedly made serious representations to it.

Noting that NATO is a military organization across the North Atlantic, the Chinese spokesperson accused it of flexing its muscles in the Asia-Pacific region and provoking conflicts.

The international community should remain "highly" vigilant to NATO's trumpeting of a new Cold War of confrontation and "resolutely" oppose it, said Zhao.

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