As the saying goes, if you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. The West has the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a self-declared "defensive" military alliance – so any country that refuses its dictates must, by definition, be an offensive military threat.

That is part of the reason why NATO issued a new "strategic concept" document last week at its summit in Madrid, declaring for the first time that China poses a "systemic challenge" to the alliance, alongside a primary "threat" from Russia.

Beijing views this new designation as a decisive step by NATO on the path to pronouncing it a "threat" too – echoing the alliance's escalatory approach towards Moscow over the past decade. In its previous mission statement, issued in 2010, NATO advocated "a true strategic partnership" with Russia.

According to a report in the New York Times, China would have found itself openly classed as a "threat" last week had it not been for Germany and France. They insisted that the more hostile terminology be watered down so as to avoid harming their trade and technology links with China.