China's military has alleged the United States and Britain are engineering the war crimes trial of Mr Slobodan Milosevic to clear the way for NATO's expansion.
"They have endangered the trial's independence and fairness," the People's Liberation Army Dailysays in an editorial.
"Right now, the United States, Britain and other western countries claim they are trying Milosevic to uphold international justice. In fact this arises from their need to gain world opinion and the diplomatic upper-hand", it argues.
China's leaders condemned the air war carried out by NATO against Yugoslavia in 1999.
Their opposition hardened when NATO planes bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
China never accepted NATO's explanation that the attack was a mistake caused by faulty targeting.
The commentary by the hard-line military newspaper appears to reaffirm China's distrust over the West's handling of Mr Milosevic.
The paper says that, led by the United States, NATO countries set up the Hague Tribunal for their own political interests, then attacked Yugoslavia using the excuse of human rights intervention because Milosevic was blocking NATOexpansion.
PA