China accused NATO on Thursday of seeking security at the expense of others and told the alliance not to bring the same “chaos” to Asia, a reflection of its determination to oppose strengthening ties between NATO members and Asian nations such as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.
The statement by a Foreign Ministry spokesperson came a day after NATO labeled China a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“NATO hyping up China’s responsibility on the Ukraine issue is unreasonable and has sinister motives,” spokesperson Lin Jian said at a daily briefing. He maintained that China has a fair and objective stance on the Ukraine issue.
China has broken with the United States and its European allies over the war in Ukraine, refusing to condemn Russia’s invasion or even to refer to it as an act of aggression in deference to Moscow. Its trade with Russia has grown since the invasion, at least partially offsetting the impact of Western sanctions.
The US fucked around with saber-rattling and scapegoating China for COVID (causing a massive rise in AAPI hate crimes btw) and now they’re finding out. Maybe if our leaders had tried deescalating tensions before shit hit the fan, then they could’ve been more successful in trying to isolate Russia, but no, always gotta have an enemy to justify the military-industrial complex, long-term consequences be damned.
China is the origin of COVID-19. Their attempts to keep it quiet and subsequent refusal for actual openness and access made the pandemic worse. There is no scapegoating there.
And China is a direct threat to the USs hegemony. So they will off course see them as an adversary. China sees the US as their adversary in their path to growth. The sabre rattling goes both ways.
The COVID lab leak conspiracy theory was promoted by high level politicians and news outlets. The origin point is largely irrelevant as it could’ve happened anywhere. China’s response was much better at containing the virus than that of the US, which is why fewer people died per capita. Public opinion of China was majority favorable in 2018, so the argument that it’s just because they’re a competitor doesn’t hold water.
The steep drop in opinion that you see in those polls is only really explainable as, like I said, the product of a massively successful propaganda campaign, the reasons for which I stated, to distract from the horrible mishandling of COVID in the US and to justify defense spending.