NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Saturday that China is closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine and the outcome of Europe’s war is likely to have a significant effect on Beijing’s behavior in the Asia-Pacific region. He commented that “Beijing is watching closely what's going on in Ukraine. And if Putin wins there, of course, that will impact their decisions on how to behave in Asia.”
Stoltenberg stated that NATO does not view China as an “imminent” threat, but is increasing its cooperation with allies in the region, including Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. He added that the rise of China is a challenge to NATO’s security, interests, and values, noting that “security is not regional. Security is global.”
He also commented on recent surveillance tactics employed by China, such as their discovery of a series of Chinese balloons above U.S. airspace, which prompted Washington to accuse Beijing of espionage. Stoltenberg said that the balloons were part of a pattern of surveillance tactics employed by China to gather intelligence on NATO allies. He concluded by stating that China has been stepping up its intelligence activities over many years, using many different platforms such as cyber satellites and other types of platforms to spy on and to gather intelligence from NATO-allied countries, both in North America, but also in Europe.