‘A very big move’: US heartened that NATO issues its first warning about Chinese influence Washington Examiner, Oct 4, 2019
LONDON — NATO leaders today warned for the first time about China’s international influence, a seminal step toward aligning the security bloc against the East Asian nation.
“It's a very big move,” U.S. Ambassador to Nato Kay Bailey Hutchison told the Washington Examiner. “NATO is a defensive alliance. And, it is our job to look at risks of the future, to look at military build-ups, assess any kind of weaponry that is being produced by any other country in the world.”
The declaration delivers a symbolic victory for U.S. diplomats who have highlighted the risks of working with the rising power, especially for European allies who rely on Chinese telecommunications companies under the thumb of Beijing’s spy services. And Hutchison expects that the declaration will pay practical dividends even in the Indo-Pacific, a globally vital region that is far removed from NATO’s traditional stomping grounds.
“We have all 29 allies now committed to assessing and remaining watchful, watching and knowing what is happening in China,” Hutchison said. “I think that starts a process by which we will watch these ports, we will watch the waterways, we will make sure that we're not being complacent if we see a hardening of activity in that area.”
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