China said the report was the latest example of US fear-mongering. (File)
Beijing:
China on Wednesday condemned a Pentagon report for claiming Beijing wanted to double its stockpile of nuclear warheads in a decade as it sought to deter the United States from any Taiwan-related intervention.
The Pentagon’s annual study of China’s military might released Tuesday said it had already equaled or surpassed the US military in several areas of defense.
He added that the People’s Liberation Army aims to be ready to win any conflict with the United States over self-governing Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory.
The Chinese Defense Ministry called the report “completely false” and a misinterpretation of Beijing’s “defense policy and military strategy”.
The report “slandered China’s military modernization, defense spending, nuclear policy and other matters,” the ministry said in a statement.
The two superpowers are locked in a vast power struggle that sweeps across commerce, technology, defense, and political influence.
Beijing said the report was the latest example of US fear-mongering to justify its own military spending – the highest in the world.
“China has always pursued a defensive national defense policy and everyone knows China is a builder of world peace,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday.
The Pentagon report said China is determined to project its power eastward into the Pacific beyond Taiwan and push the United States out of the region.
China has in turn blamed Washington, which has military bases in the Pacific, for rising tensions in Asia.
Tensions between the two superpowers have simmered in the South China Sea in recent weeks, where China is claiming land claims disputed by neighbors such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan.
The Pentagon said last month that Chinese exercises involving ballistic missile launches at sea threatened regional security.
Beijing, meanwhile, lambasted Washington’s “tyrannical” blacklist of two dozen Chinese state-owned companies involved in building China’s regional bases.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
