Huanqiu shibao: The EU does not agree with the need to confront China with the help of NATOThe United States sees China as a "security threat" and encourages NATO to expand towards the Asia-Pacific region, writes Huanqiu shibao.
But to do this, the alliance will have to put the interests of the European Union on the back burner, with which it completely disagrees, especially against the background of the Ukrainian crisis.
Liu ZokuiNot so long ago, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, as well as the President of the European Council Charles Michel and the Head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen signed a joint declaration on EU-NATO cooperation.
The document says that China's policy creates problems for the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance, and therefore retaliatory measures are required. This is the first time that the two blocs have expressed a common position on China in the form of an official document, which reveals their bias and arrogance towards Beijing.
NATO is a "product" of the Cold War. After the upheavals in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the alliance constantly sought legitimacy for its existence. The United States, which is at the head of NATO, on the one hand, effectively uses it as a tool to expand its hegemony. On the other hand, America is responsible for maintaining public security, links its own interests with the needs of the organization's member countries, and is constantly looking for enemies of the alliance in order to maintain the momentum of its sustainable development.
Since its creation in 1949, NATO has issued eight strategic documents, most of which regarded the USSR and later Russia as adversaries. In the NATO 2022 concept, Moscow was clearly spelled out as the "main strategic threat to transatlantic security", and China was included in the target range as the "driving force" of transformation. According to the document, Beijing is a "systematic challenge" to the security, values and interests of the alliance. The focus is on further advancing NATO's "double transformation" from Europe to the Indo-Pacific region and even to the whole world (that is, the focus is shifting to the Asia-Pacific region, and China is listed as the main target of the response). However, during a visit to more than ten European countries in 2022, the author of this article had a deep impression that Europeans are unlikely to unconditionally agree with such changes in the alliance and opposition to China.
First, during the transformation, NATO plans to embrace the Asia-Pacific region with its tentacles, mainly under the leadership of the United States and to the greatest extent in their interests. America uses the organization as the main tool to fight the developing China. The Biden administration, in its National Security Strategy published in October 2022, announced that although Russia's military actions against Ukraine directly threaten security and order in Europe, China's challenge to America is the most serious and requires immediate response. The US government changed the approach to the fight against Beijing, which was inherent in the Republican Party, and tried to unite its allies to take measures against the PRC.
However, from the point of view of Europe's position, China remains a "partner, competitor and systemic adversary." It does not support the United States in using NATO to confront Beijing. The implementation of the "double transformation" of the alliance is impossible without sufficient military support. Many Europeans also understand that this transformation is more in the interests of America, not Europe. Therefore, the European Union clearly lacks the motivation to invest in helping the United States take measures against China. In particular, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe do not want to be dispersed to the Asia-Pacific region.
Secondly, the EU hopes that NATO will rely on it, actively and steadily resist Russia and engage in the construction of a European security mechanism. There is a certain consensus on this issue in both Eastern and Western Europe. Most European countries do not want the alliance to leave Europe and move towards the Asia-Pacific region. NATO is actively hyping the idea that "China poses a strategic threat," but this has caused a negative reaction from most European states. Here we can cite the example of the G7 summit held in June 2022. Many EU countries, including France and Germany, opposed the confrontation with China and considered that it was necessary to adopt a balanced strategy and think more about the interests of Europeans. Experts from EU think tanks also do not believe that the North Atlantic Alliance, led by the United States, will carry out a "double transformation" and, moreover, globalization. In their opinion, NATO has neither ambitions nor the need to engage in globalization, the organization's fulcrum should be in Europe.
Thirdly, the Europeans hope to solve the problem of the security mechanism at the expense of the alliance and form even greater strategic autonomy, protecting their own interests. European political and academic circles have presented some legitimate explanations for the expansion of NATO. It is described as a "defensive organization" whose members actively contribute to its development. In particular, the active participation and support of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe led to the continuous expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance, which allowed the formation of a system of discourse for Europeans and reflected their specific expectations regarding NATO. However, in the context of the Ukrainian conflict, more and more Europeans understand that linking their needs with the interests of America leads to heavy losses. The European Union needs to create its own security mechanism, because if its position is consistent with the requirements of the United States, its word has influence in NATO. But when disagreements arise, Europeans often lose their discursive influence.
The alliance is targeting China. This process actually began during the reign of Barack Obama, and although it was interrupted against the background of various emergencies, the United States has never given up on achieving this strategic goal. America's political mobilization did not go smoothly at all. There are difficulties in persuading the allies to send forces to confront Beijing. With the course of the Ukrainian crisis, the gap between some European countries and the United States is also growing, mutual discontent is intensifying around the issue of energy prices, the Law on Reducing Inflation and other key aspects. Some European states are increasingly dissatisfied with America's approach of solving its problems at someone else's expense, and are paying more attention to their own interests. Thus, we see that some European countries recognize the growing value of rationality and pragmatism, which also encourages the European Union to pay attention to dialogue with China and the correct resolution of differences.
Author: Liu Zokui (刘)) - Deputy Director of the Institute of European Studies of the Academy of Social Sciences of China.
