CEPA: The Money War with China: NATO and Economic Security

The alliance has long had a role in supply chain monitoring, infrastructure and economic resilience. It has never been more vital.

“Freedom is more important than free trade,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg declared at the 2022 Europe-based World Economic Forum in Davos discussing China amongst other key issues. Just a few years earlier it would have seemed strange for a security-oriented NATO chief to weigh in on such economic issues.

Today, amid Russia’s aggression, the rise of China, and tensions in the Middle East, security and economics are inseparable. “What used to be seen as purely economic decisions have become security concerns”, says former NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu, now a Distinguished Fellow at RUSI in London.

In 2019, for example, the US warned NATO members that purchasing 5G equipment from China’s Huawei was a threat to their collective security. At the time, Europeans argued it was good business, and removing Chinese 5G providers could have cost up to €55bn ($59bn).

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