NATO's misplaced anger at China

Editor's note: Anthony Moretti, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is an associate professor at the Department of Communication and Organizational Leadership at Robert Morris University. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

As Western leaders gathered in Washington, D.C. this week in order to celebrate the 75th anniversary of NATO, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine was an obvious point of discussion.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who has been trying to fight off calls within his party over the past two weeks to discontinue his re-election campaign, told his audience that Ukraine would not give up the fight and would eventually defeat Russia. In the president's words, "Ukraine can and will stop" Russian President Vladimir Putin's goal "to wipe Ukraine off the map."

Just when you thought the alliance would focus on those countries and leave others out of the conversation, along came the inevitable blaming of China. 

Even with China again calling for a ceasefire, a point we will return to later, NATO and Western leaders could not resist placing Beijing in the crosshairs. As Reuters noted, the West and NATO want the global audience to believe that China has consistently aided Russia, despite not providing substantive evidence to the claim.

Later, the alliance's Washington Summit Declaration, created during the summit, left little doubt that China had drawn NATO's ire: "The deepening strategic partnership between Russia and the People's Republic of China and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut and reshape the rules-based international order, are a cause for profound concern." Let us not forget that the West created the "rules-based international order" and will not allow any other nation to threaten or change it.

Keep in mind that China has not faced any scrutiny from NATO for more than five years. Nevertheless, in the blistering hot summer of 2024, Beijing is suddenly a bad guy. One legitimate question: Why now? The perilous domestic political situation in multiple democratic nations might be the reason. 

Consider that Biden – locked into a close battle for the White House with Donald Trump, the man he defeated in 2020 – is far from a guaranteed winner in November. NATO, worried that Trump's return to the Oval Office could mean a declining commitment from Washington to the alliance, is trying to "Trump-proof" NATO by putting military aid under NATO's auspices, extending pledges to defend Ukraine for many years and increasing overall spending.

The United Kingdom swept Labour leader Keir Starmer into the prime minister's role just last week. He has pledged that his country will remain a steadfast supporter of Kyiv. The new prime minister knows the British people support Ukraine, so hopping on the China-bashing train might bolster his popularity.

But keep in mind that Labour received only 34 percent of the overall vote a few days; the upstart Reform Party gathered 14 percent, a figure that ultimately crippled the Tories. In other words, Starmer and his party are not nearly as popular as he might want to believe. He would be wise to avoid falling prey to overreach so early in his tenure.

And then there is Japan. Just last month, one public opinion poll concluded that current prime minister Fumio Kishida had the support of just 21 percent of the electorate. While that number went up slightly in a more recent poll, the bitter reality is that Kishida and his party might very well be thrown out of power later this year.

Kishida can use sharp criticism of China, something he has done for well over a year, in an attempt to generate support at the ballot box. But his party's ethical challenges and the unsettled question of whether wastewater being discharged from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power site into the Pacific Ocean remains free of contaminants guarantee that Kishida's political position is far worse than Biden's.

In effect, China is a convenient boogieman for Western leaders in need to score domestic political points. We ought not to forget that China has been denigrated by neighbors near and far primarily because it will not abide by the Western-created world order.

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