China's vice FM: NATO eastward expansion recipe for disaster
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The Chinese Vice Foreign Minister addresses the way Europe is dealing with its security crisis.
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China's Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng speaking at the Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, China, October 22, 2019 (VCG)
On Friday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng warned that an attempt by the US to mitigate European security issues with NATO expansion will only lead to greater disaster.
Yucheng criticized those who claimed that the war in Ukraine provided justification for NATO's eastward expansion, asserting that they took "the root of cause as the prescription."
"NATO’s continued eastward expansion has upset security in Europe and created a big mess… Given this, to resolve the crisis by further expansion would be like correcting one mistake with another," he told an online security dialogue of G20 think-tanks.
Read more: China envoy to UN: NATO eastward expansion did not make Europe safer
Yucheng criticized the West for its Cold-War mentality and power politics, including threats to impose secondary sanctions on China if it did not bandwagon on Russian condemnation and sanctions.
The Ukraine crisis, according to the Vice FM, proved that European security policy is outdated and the mindset it embodies is "ossified".
"They might be holding in their hands smart phones of the globalized age, but their minds are still operating with last century’s system of Cold War mentality. It’s no surprise that Europe’s security system is experiencing a ‘downtime’," Le Yucheng argued.
Yucheng's remarks come especially as NATO threatens to form an "Asian NATO" to counter what it calls "Chinese aggression".
"If this is not an Asia-Pacific version of NATO’s eastward expansion, then what is? Such a strategy, if left unchecked, would bring horrible consequences and push the Asia-Pacific over the edge of an abyss," he said.
He warned that replicating Ukraine in Taiwan is not possible for the reason that the island is a part of China, advising the US to 'take lessons' from Ukraine after Europe's security imploded.
