NATO must not be ‘naive’ about China in light of Beijing‘s ‘staggering’ expansion of its armed forces, the alliance’s chief has warned.

Mark Rutte said the country’s substantial investments in its defence capabilities must act as a wake-up call for Western nations who have not taken the threat seriously so far.

The NATO Secretary General also claimed that China’s increasing support for Russia, as well as their links with North Korea and Iran, shows the renewed importance of the Euro-Atlantic partnership.

‘China is supporting Russia’s efforts. China is building up its armed forces, including its navy, at a rapid pace,’ Rutte told reporters at the Japanese navy port of Yokosuka today.

‘We cannot be naive, and we really have to work together, assess what is happening.

‘When you look at the build-up of the defence industrial base in China, when you look at the fact that they have now more NATO ships sailing than the US, that they will go in to 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, it’s absolutely clear that we cannot be naïve about China. 

‘We cannot be naive about China, and that’s the reason why we work so intensely together with, indeed, Japan and Korea, but also Australia, New Zealand. And the importance now is that we that we deepen that cooperation.’

He later told the Japan Times: ‘The build-up of their armed forces and investments in their defence industry, and in their defence capabilities, is staggering.’ 

Japan considers China as a threat in the region and has in recent years accelerated military build-up, including preparing to acquire strike-back capability with long-range cruise missiles.

Earlier today he told Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani: ‘NATO and Japan share the same values and we face many of the same challenges.

‘China, North Korea and Russia are stepping up their military exercises and their cooperation, undermining global stability, and that means what happens in the Euro-Atlantic matters for the Indo-Pacific and vice versa.

‘A stronger Japan-NATO cooperation is necessary in an increasingly dangerous world.’

NATO has already strengthened ties with Tokyo in recent years, with Rutte calling for bonds to be deepened further in light of the Chinese threat.

This could come in the form of information sharing and cooperation on defence. 

‘We have to move beyond … joint declarations … let’s make it practical,’ Rutte said last year. 

In recent weeks China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched large-scale military drills around Taiwan – a territory it wants to control fully – without warning.

Earlier today the former Dutch prime minister said NATO is concerned about the operations and is monitoring them ‘very closely.’ 

The exercises have prompted condemnation from the US, UK and other G7 nations, who fear Beijing are stepping up their military pressure on the island.

The Labour government have been accused of failing to stand up to Chinese aggression, both on British soil and abroad.

Luke De Pulford of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China told MailOnline: ‘It would be good to see some of this realism creep into the UK’s rhetoric on China. 

‘Rutte is correct that Beijing’s behaviour threatens world peace, and global economic stability. 

‘The democratic world isn’t even close to meaningful deterrence, and the UK is further behind than most.’ 

China is also threatening the West through their continued backing for Russia, Rutte said.

‘Let’s be totally clear about this. We know that they help and support the Russians warfare through war effort, through sanction circumvention, through delivery of dual use goods.

‘So they are an integral part of the war effort, and now North Korea sending its soldiers to Europe to fight a war here. 

‘We know that the Russians are repaying them, not only with money, but also with technology, which, in the end, is also posing a threat to the United States, and to the whole of NATO territory and to the Indo Pacific.’