Don’t fall for NATO’s hyped-up rhetoric on defence spending

Behind the so-called ‘China threat’ lies certain countries’ desire to maintain their hegemony. They are trapped in their own inertia, fear fair competition and cannot tolerate other countries making progress.

US President Donald Trump at the 2025 NATO Summit. Picture: Getty Images

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Recently, some countries hyped up the so-called China threat narrative on occasions such as the Shangri-La Dialogue, G7 summit and NATO summit, proclaiming to significantly increase defence expenditures, and even incited Australia to follow suit.

Such rhetoric and actions are steeped in Cold War mentality, blatantly creating division, fuelling a global arms race as well as threatening world peace and stability, which warrants our high vigilance.

By playing up international and regional tensions and slandering China’s normal military build-up, these countries are merely seeking nothing but excuses to drastically grow their military spending, even arbitrarily reaching beyond its geographical scope and mandate.

NATO countries already account for 55 per cent of the world’s total military spending in 2024.

Yet they are still required to raise defence investment to 5 per cent of GDP to build a “more lethal NATO”.

Behind the so-called China threat lies certain countries’ desire to maintain their hegemony. They are trapped in their own inertia, fear fair competition and even cannot tolerate other countries from making progress.

To this end, they seek to stifle the development and advancement of countries such as China, so they can continue plundering the world through hegemony while funnelling benefits to their backers. This runs counter to fairness, justice and the prevailing trend of global development.

Healthy competition is the only path towards world progress and civilisation advancement, a consensus long held by the international community.

Dramatically increasing military spending places a heavy fiscal burden on the countries involved, undermining their efforts to boost economies and improve livelihoods, and further straining a global economy already struggling with weak recovery. Some countries are ailing yet demand their allies and partners foot the bill for medicine, which seems to be an almost laughable notion.

Whether to spend on arms purchases, handouts to the hegemon, or pooling funds for its sake, or to heed their own people’s calls for economic development, is now a difficult choice for these allies and partners.

To be frank, this is not the first time China has been labelled and targeted. In recent years a handful of countries have rallied so-called allies and partners to repeatedly smear China, peddling narratives such as the “China collapse”, “China threat” and even “Peak China”, while imposing economic suppression and technological blockades. Yet the only tangible outcome of their painstaking efforts to undermine international rules and order has been global economic stagnation, slower technological innovation and heightened regional instability.

Facing these smears and containment, China’s economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience and the living standards of the Chinese people have continued to rise. China has always been a steadfast supporter, defender and promoter of world peace. More than 600 years ago, Zheng He’s seven voyages to the Western Seas carried only silk, porcelain, trade and friendship.

Shortly after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, it put forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.

Across the past 70-plus years, China has never initiated a war or occupied an inch of a foreign land. It is the only country that has incorporated peaceful development in its constitution and the only country among the nuclear-weapon states to pledge no first use of nuclear weapons.

China unwaveringly adheres to a defensive national defence policy, with military spending accounting for just 1.5 per cent of its GDP. It is far below the global average and paling in comparison to certain hegemons or their allies and partners.

On peace and security, China has the best track record among major countries. In recent years, having observed the profound shifts unseen in a century, President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilisation Initiative, advocating for shared global development, collective security and dialogue among civilisations. China has once again contributed its wisdom, solutions and strength to world peace and development.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, from front row left, China's President Xi Jinping and Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pose with other G20 leaders at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

China and Australia are important economic and trade partners, with highly complementary economic structures. Australia’s abundant energy and mineral resources, along with its distinctive agricultural products, have found a vast market of 1.4 billion consumers in China.

Meanwhile, China’s high-quality and affordable manufactured goods have boosted Australians’ purchasing power and enriched their lives. Although our two nations have different social systems and may hold differing views on certain issues, we share no historical grievances or fundamental conflicts of interest.

We rely on the same trade routes, and no country – especially a major trading nation such as China – has a greater stake in safeguarding maritime security. Differences can be addressed through dialogue, but they should never undermine our friendship.

As I often hear from Australian friends, “we have hundreds of reasons to be friends, and none to be enemies”. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War and of the founding of the UN. As builders and defenders of the post-war international order, China stands ready to work with Australia to jointly uphold the international system with the UN at its core and the international order based on the international law, thus making positive contributions to global peace and security.

China and Australia are friends, not foes. This should never have been in question. China has been always developing bilateral friendship and co-operation with the utmost sincerity and patience, and we hope Australia will work with us in the same direction.

Xiao Qian is China’s ambassador to Australia.