China’s ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, told a UN Security Council meeting on the war in Ukraine Thursday that NATO’s eastward expansion since the end of the Cold War has “sowed the seeds of conflict.”
Zhang’s comments came as Beijing commemorates the anniversary of the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7, 1999, during the NATO air campaign in Yugoslavia.
“NATO’s repeated eastward expansion after the Cold War has not only failed to make Europe any safer, but also sowed the seeds of conflict,” Zhang said. “Contrary to its claim to be an organization defensive in nature, NATO has wantonly launched wars against sovereign countries, causing colossal casualties and humanitarian disasters.”
Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has expanded from 16 members to 30 and absorbed former Soviet states, including some that border Russia. The alliance has waged brutal bombing campaigns against former Yugoslavia and Libya, two countries that never attacked alliance members.
In the 1999 bombing of China’s embassy, three Chinese journalists were killed, and 20 Chinese diplomats were wounded. “The Chinese people will never forget this barbaric atrocity, and will never allow such history to repeat itself,” Zhang said. The US immediately apologized for the embassy bombing, saying it was an accident.
Zhang also took issue with NATO’s recent comments about China and its plans to work with countries in the Asia Pacific to counter Beijing. “NATO should immediately stop spreading disinformation and provocative remarks targeting China, and abandon the confrontational approach of drawing ideological lines,” he said.
Chinese officials have been warning NATO to stay out of Asia, something Zhang reiterated. “NATO has disrupted Europe. It should stop trying to destabilize Asia and the whole world,” he said.
NATO not only sowed the seeds of conflict but are now fertilizing the tree of war and trying to grow more trees in regions which are far away from their borders.
We are running towards the precipice as a result of the greed of some countries in their quest to control the world.
What times we live in when we have to resort to Chinese sources to get the truth!
During the Cold War the two superpowers avoided nuclear apocalypse. In the cycle of history there are eras of relative peace and eras of total war. So often with the cycle of history nations do not know which they are in – today they’re in an era of total war.
https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/
We are very far away from total war. Total war is an exchange of strategic nuclear weapons between the US and Russia.
As long as Ukrainians and Russians are doing all the dying the US has no reason to go to a nuclear first strike. But I fear that Putin may have to choose between accepting defeat and nuclear war.
The Chinese are a wise, wise people.
Can’t say the same for Amerikkkans.
Or the Russians.
Putin should have talked to Xi and taken his advice before invading Ukraine.. China could have conquered Taiwan anytime during the past 50 years. But China chose to wait. And China will wait another 50 years,if necessary. China is confident that in the long run the people of Taiwan and Hong Kong will join China voluntarily. US military aid to Taiwan is a threat to Chinese security. But China has wisely chosen to confine its protests to the diplomatic arena. Russia shouldhave done the same with Ukraine.
Putin’s war of Revanche has been a disaster for Russia. It is ironic that the Democrats accused Putin of programming Trump. Actually it looks like Biden has programmed Putin to fight a war that Russia can’t win, at incredible cost to Russia with minimal NATO involvement and virtually no NATO casualties. Thousands of Russians have been killed against fewer than a handful of NATO military advisers and Russia’s expenditures on the war are ordersof magnitude greater than the billions US/NATO is contributing to Ukraine’s war effort.
There is a world of difference between Ukraine and Taiwan. The US has closed in on Russia by moving missile systems closer to the Russian border. The new missile systems are to undermine Russia’s nuclear deterrence to enable the US to win a nuclear exchange. That is an essential threat to Russia’s security and to world peace. Unlike Nato’s new Eastern members and Ukraine, who are only too eager to host US nukes, no Asian country is going to install the new generation of US intermediate range missiles now nearing completion.
There is no reason to assume that the US wants to put nukes in Ukraine. The US has not moved nukes into the Baltic state or the Warsaw Pact countries. The simple reason is that the US is evil, but not suicidal. US nukes in Ukraine are a strategic threat to the US as much as to Russia.
This war has backfired on Russia. NATO is stronger and Russia less credible and much weaker than three months ago. Putin’s war is destroying Russia as much as the Afghanistan War destroyed the Soviet Union. Putin is behaving like so many belligerent strongmen before him. When his aggression is resisted he counters with more force. When the escallation strengthens the resistance, he further escallates the force, Inthe end the Russians will have ot withdraw. The only question is when and whether Putin will still be in charge when the war ends the only way it can.
The US has put nuclear-capable missile systems into Poland and Romania in violation of the Russia-Nato Founding Act of 1997. The missiles were stationed in the framework of bilateral agreements to circumvent any veto by other Nato members that don’t want war with Russia.
Polish and Ukrainian leaders are pushing hard to station US nukes on their soil. When Selensky speaks about wanting nuclear weapons, he refers to US nuclear weapons because the US would never allow Ukraine to have its independent nuclear force.
“But China has wisely chosen to confine its protests to the diplomatic arena.” Repeatedly sending swarms of bombers right up to the brink of Taiwan’s defense perimeter and pulling back at the last moment is not my idea of diplomacy, but Russia’s unexpected bloody nose in Ukraine may teach China a lesson when it comes to bullying.
China has not killed any Taiwanese.
Even trade. China gets Blinken, we get Zhang Jun.
Oh Wars, we can’t do that to China! 😭😭😭
Not to worry, they aren’t dumb enough to accept it. The know Blinken like we know Blinken.
The Chinese are correct.
The US media generally cannot even report this, and US readers are generally ignorant of the existence of these issues. There is no substantive discussion. It is forbidden, and some web sites that attempted it have been shut down by the Establishment (as for example Consortium News).
If the issues are even mentioned, it is only to ridicule them as Russian talking points suggested by traitors, obviously absurd. No discussion of contents, much less merits.
So, where do these people want the first nukes to hit? Ukraine only? DC and NYC is where justice would put them.
There would be no justice in a nuclear first strike. Doesn’t matter if the target is Kyiv, DC or Moscow.
Yes, the US planned and provoked Putin’s war. I supported Putin’s reasonable demands up until February 24th.
But reasonable demands don’t justify a war of aggression and losing a war of aggression does not justify escalating to nuclear weapons.
There is no justice or justification in the use of nuclear weapons.
There is no need for justification for the use of nuclear weapons so long as one can get away with it or maybe even mutual destruction. If one is about to face defeat, one may choose nuclear weapon to bring everyone else witb it. Even when a country existence is not even threatened like the US, it still considers using nuclear weapons like during the korean war for example.
Well said by China, NATO is out of control and run by a left wing Norwegian politician who never served in the military. The Secretary of NATO Mr. Stoltenberg is all about increasing his power, prestige, and financial net worth.
NATO should have not existed past 1990 but now we are stuck to this tar baby. It is time to clip the wings of this dangerous organization.