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China says U.S. report on its military exaggerated Reuters
The U.S. Defense Department report released on Friday said that while Beijing remained focused on the Taiwan Strait as a potential flashpoint, it also appeared to be looking to project its growing military strength elsewhere. "The Pentagon report exaggerates China's military strength and expenditure with ulterior motives," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted in its Web site (www.fmprc.gov.cn). "It continues spreading the 'China threat' theory, seriously violates the norms of international relations and is a gross interference in China's internal affairs," it added. "The Chinese side expresses strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to this."
While Beijing and Washington have been cooperating on North Korea and other international crises, the tough words underscored the distrust that overshadows military perceptions on both sides. The Pentagon's annual report to the U.S. Congress on China's military power said Beijing maintained its traditional focus on Taiwan, the self-ruled island divided from mainland rule since 1949, which Beijing says must eventually accept reunification. But the report stressed that China was looking beyond the island in making and buying weapons and crafting strategy. Not so, China's foreign ministry said. "China is a peace-loving country which sticks to a path of peaceful development and adopts a defensive national defense policy," it said. "The international community has a fair judgment that China is an important force in promoting peace in the Asia-Pacific and in the world." In March, China said it would boost defense spending by 17.8 percent to about $45 billion in 2007. But the Pentagon report cited U.S. intelligence estimates that China's total military-related spending for 2007 could really be between $85 billion and $125 billion. The Bush administration had requested $484.1 billion for the Defense Department in the fiscal year starting from October 2007, a figure that does not include military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It is the responsibility of any sovereign country to conduct necessary national defense build-up to safeguard national security and territorial integrity," the foreign ministry statement added. "The report's whipping up the 'China threat' theory is completely wrong and will be in vain." ---------------------------------------------------
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China hit back at a Pentagon report on its rising military might on Monday,
saying it was exaggerated and an interference in Chinese domestic affairs.
