Communique testimony to NATO's death grip on Cold War worldview: China Daily editorial

Although the North Atlantic Treaty Organization claims in the opening of the Vilnius Summit Communique it issued on Tuesday that its member states are "bound by shared values of individual liberty, human rights, democracy, and the rule of law", what the rest of the lengthy document of nearly 12,000 words shows is somewhat different.

Thirty members of the bloc are certainly bound by something they have in common. That is the surrendering of their autonomy in subservience to the other member. The 90 points of the communique expose how the bloc has been transformed from a so-called shared defense organization to a geopolitical tool of the United States.

Notably, at least five to six out of the communique's 90 points are partly or wholly related to China, whose "stated ambitions and coercive policies" supposedly challenge the interests, security and values of the NATO members. The communique alleges that China poses "systemic challenges" to "Euro-Atlantic security" and the country is employing "a broad range of political, economic and military tools to increase its global footprint and project power, while remaining opaque about its strategy, intentions and military build-up".

However, the world has heard such remarks time and again. Successive US administrations have distorted China's position and policy and deliberately sought to smear China with such talk.

The communique's virtue signaling is intended to contrast the self-professed moral correctness of the NATO members with the rise of a "despicable evil empire". It is a scheme they have presented to the world before.

Yet no matter how hard they try, the US and its NATO allies cannot blot out the true revealers of China's character. The country has made unique contributions to global development, peace and stability, whether it be the public goods of its four initiatives, its poverty alleviation efforts or its role as a driver of the world economy. Washington cannot cover up the true nature of NATO either.

As a product of the Cold War, NATO has a long history of wrongdoing. Against the backdrop of the deteriorating international security situation, the NATO members, instead of reflecting on how they can fulfill the organization's stated purpose of building trust and preventing conflict, continue to interfere in extraterritorial affairs and promote confrontation.

Moreover, NATO's repeated declaration in the communique that it is a "nuclear alliance" is not at all helpful to realizing the goal of a world without such weapons.

NATO, as a whole, unlike some of its members, has never been "open to constructive engagement with" China as it claims in the joint statement. And as long as it continues to cling to its Cold War mentality and the US security umbrella, it will never be able to have "constructive engagement" with counties both without, and within, the alliance.