NATO will concentrate on countering the Chinese threat as part of next decade’s new strategic approach, according to its secretary-general, as reported by The Financial Times.
This comes as China is achieving increasing global dominance, having allegedly gained the upper hand in key warfare technologies, such as long-range and hypersonic missiles.
In his interview with The Financial Times, NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said China’s cyber capabilities, new technologies, and long-range missiles have already affected European security.
“This region faces global challenges: terrorism, cyber but also the rise of China. So when it comes to strengthening our collective defense, that’s also about how to address the rise of China,” he said. “What we can predict is that the rise of China will impact our security. It already has.”
NATO, a political and military alliance of North America and the European Union, will adopt a new Strategic Concept during a summit next summer. The Strategic Concept will state the organization’s direction during the next decade, which will focus on offsetting the Chinese threat, unlike the version outlined in 2010.
China launched a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in August, as stated in an investigative report by The Financial Times. The technology was described as a surprise to the U.S. intelligence community and highlighted China’s weapon development progress.
This year, the CCP has threatened to bring Taiwan into its fold through force if necessary, and experts believe it is making significant military advances toward invading the island. The CCP claims the island-nation as part of its territory, despite Taiwan being a self-governed democracy with independent military and currency.
Taiwan is of high strategic value in a potential fight with the CCP. It serves as a barrier to the Chinese navy, keeping the keys between the East and South China Seas and [holding] the People’s Liberation Army Navy within the first island chain.
China gaining full control of the South China Sea is key to its nuclear strategy and would put the United States in great danger. The regime would be able to use it as a staging area for nuclear submarines to travel to the Midway Atoll, putting them within range of the East Coast of the United States.
“China is coming closer to us. … We see them in the Arctic. We see them in cyberspace. We see them investing heavily in critical infrastructure in our countries,” said Stoltenberg, according to The Financial Times.
Chinese cyber technolgy recently become more sophisticated and harder to detect after the Chinese military was reorganized, and industrial espionage was transferred to another organ, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), the intelligence, security, and secret police agency.
In addition, the CCP has put enormous efforts into collecting user data, the new strategic commodity for global dominance which, aided by Artificial Intelligence could result in a coherent picture that can shape strategic and operational plans, and give an antagonist an unseen advantage by sometimes knowing more about his or her opponent than they know themselves.