We can understand the mechanisms and dimensions of competition and conflict between China and NATO, and the Chinese reaction strategy to control the NATO’S members economically and logistically, by controlling the largest major European ports overlooking the seas and oceans, managing and operating or developing those ports and making them a source for managing and operating containers and giant Chinese cargo ships.
Based on the Chinese threat to the areas of influence of the (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) “NATO”, according to its estimates, for more than a year, the demands of the alliance’s officials have been publicly repeated to control Chinese influence and encroachment in the main areas of the Baltic states, Europe, eastern, central and western Europe. The responses and the confrontation mechanism of the NATO leaders came to China, then (The reaction of the United States and NATO member countries to encircle and contain China, and launch a number of new NATO strategies with the aim of reducing China in their important areas), as follows:
NATO Secretary-General “Jens Stoltenberg” acknowledged the need to confront the escalating Chinese threat, stressing: “China responds in an aggressive manner to others when any criticism is directed against it”, at the same time acknowledging the difference and some “difficult discussions” between the alliance countries during the period The presence of Donald Trump in the White House.
The “new containment theory of China” also includes “financial disagreements about sharing the burdens of confrontation with China among the thirty members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which was stated by “Stoltenberg” as the Secretary of the Alliance, by saying:
“Trump has often complained that other members of the alliance are not paying their fair share of the financial burden related to the common defense, to the point that he has talked about withdrawing his country from the alliance”
As for “NATO’s new strategy towards China during the Joe Biden administration”, this is what Stoltenberg explained, stating that:
“We now have a new American president who is more committed than his predecessor, Trump, to the duties of NATO, supports Europe’s security, and is ready to invest more in NATO as well”
It also began (new signs of a shift towards security challenges coming from China, and NATO’s recognition that it is at the heart of its defenses and areas of influence), and this new shift towards “challenging the Chinese threat” appeared during the NATO summit in London in 2019, when the NATO Secretary of the Alliance. “Stoltenberg” was warning its member states, saying:
“The Alliance countries have to face the fact that China is getting closer and closer to Africa, the Arctic, cyberspace, and even Europe”
Thus, we understand the increasing American influence within the “NATO”, and Washington’s success in creating a general anti-Chinese atmosphere among the thirty members of the NATO countries, through the statement of the “London Summit of the NATO Meeting 2019”, and the issuance of the final statement for the first time, a declaration in which it stated that:
“China represents a potential strategic threat, and that China’s “increasing influence in international politics” presents opportunities and challenges, which we need to face together as an alliance”
We have here the most important analysis, which is that “NATO speeches have become identical to the same American speeches regarding China without providing any evidence for any accusations related to it”. The strategic analysis remains here, regarding:
What is the nature of the challenge that China poses to NATO and its countries, despite what appears to be a geographical distance between the two sides and different areas of influence?
Despite the lack of clarity on the “mechanism of China’s direct threat to the security of Europe and NATO”, Washington confirms that the security of Europe and NATO members is in danger, because China represents a full spectrum of challenges for NATO, which prompted NATO military leaders – upon their understanding of the American point of view – emphasizing that:
“Although China does not pose a direct military threat to NATO, Beijing’s growing influence and confident diplomacy in Europe has had major repercussions for transatlantic security and economy”
We find here (NATO members linking the economic expansion of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative to Europe and the impact on the security of NATO countries), and this came through a public statement in which they expressed:
“China’s investments in vital infrastructure projects in Europe, from telecommunications networks to port facilities, may weaken NATO’s ability to respond to international crises diplomatically or militarily if necessary”
According to the raised and incomprehensible discussions among NATO members, which in my view are an indirect repetition of the same accusations launched by the United States against China, NATO emphasized “the danger of the Chinese company Huawei to the security of NATO”, by emphasizing:
“If some NATO allies include Huawei’s equipment in their 5G networks, then questions can arise about the safety of these networks, given the close relationship between the company and the Chinese Communist Party” … According to their exact expression
Here, we find the military and strategic link between NATO and the increasing Chinese influence, according to statements issued by them, with the statement:
“The sensitive military supply chains of the NATO alliance may become highly dependent on China, as happened recently with the F-35 fighters”
In a new attempt to change NATO’s strategy, through (linking NATO’s military roles with the need for it to play other political roles), the public statements of NATO Secretary General “Jens Stoltenberg” came in:
“NATO must take a greater political role in world affairs, even to help the Indo-Pacific countries compete with the rise of China”
In an official acknowledgment by NATO members of the Chinese military threat to their security, this came in the statement of the “NATO summit in London” (3-4 December 2019), confirmed that:
“We should consider the rising Chinese military power as a potential new enemy”
In reference to this explicit text about the priority of the Chinese threat in the “new security agenda of NATO and its members”, this represented an upcoming initiative of NATO, which represents a major shift in relation to the alliance’s basic objectives, as well as its strategic and defense objectives. The NATO statement confirmed this, by emphasizing:
“We realize that the increasing influence of China and its international policy presents opportunities and challenges at the same time, and here we must as an alliance deal jointly with them”
In a new statement from NATO regarding the “Chinese threat and the new global security and military imbalance”, here came the warning of NATO Secretary-General “Stoltenberg” in June 2020, in an interview with the German newspaper “Welt am Sonntag”, emphasizing that:
“The global balance of power may change violently, especially that China is at the gates of Europe, so NATO must warn against the strong and rapid rise of China in the recent period”
The new agenda of NATO to contain China is represented through the “mechanism of collective union and Western security mobilization to confront China”, which is what the Secretary General of NATO stressed, that:
“We must be united by the Western alliance of NATO in the face of this Chinese power and new challenges”
What stopped the Egyptian researcher is the conflicting and contradictory statements of NATO Secretary General, Tess Stoltenberg, regarding China, and his assertion that “the Chinese do not directly threaten the security of NATO, and these statements contradict other previous statements”, through the statement of the Secretary of the Alliance again, by saying:
“China does not pose any direct threat to any NATO country so far, but serious developments are observed in the South China Sea, and Beijing has increased its attempts to restrict the freedom of movement of ships in international waters”
Through this analysis to understand the new direction of NATO towards China, the Egyptian researcher concluded that the tense relations between China and the United States, the most prominent member of NATO, may cast a shadow of confrontation and escalation on relations between NATO members, especially the Europeans and Beijing.
We find here, many (contradictory and different speeches by NATO through official statements that the researcher has followed them), and it suffices to point out here to confirm “NATO” in a new statement said that: “Although the confrontation between China and the alliance is “not desirable and not inevitable”. However, the alliance statement rewarned that:
“The alliance’s failure to prepare for China and manage the challenge it represents may make confrontation more likely over time”
Here, simply, we can understand the “extent of those American pressures on its European partners in NATO”, and try to force them to “adopt a new security agenda to confront China, and share the same American ambitions”.
