Chinese military calls U.S. biggest threat to world peace
This was in response to a U.S. Defense Department report outlining China's military developments and goals.
They're not happy about the report from the Department of Defense about the Chinese military ambitions and potential threat, calling it false and distorted.
This was in response to a U.S. Defense Department report outlining China's military developments and goals.
BEIJING —
China’s Defense Ministry on Sunday blasted a critical U.S. report on the country’s military ambitions, saying it is the U.S. instead that poses the biggest threat to the international order and world peace.
The statement follows the Sept. 2 release of the annual Defense Department report to Congress on Chinese military developments and goals that it said would have “serious implications for U.S. national interests and the security of the international rules-based order.”
Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Wu Qian called the report a “wanton distortion” of China’s aims and the relationship between the People’s Liberation Army and China’s people.
“Many years of evidence shows that it is the U.S. that is the fomenter of regional unrest, the violator of the international order and the destroyer of world peace,” he said.
U.S. actions in Iraq, Syria, Libya and other countries over the last two decades have resulted in the deaths of more than 800,000 people and displacement of millions, Qian said.
“Rather than reflecting on itself, the U.S. issued a so-called report that made false comments about China’s normal defense and military construction,” he said in the statement. “We call on the U.S. to view China’s national defense and military construction objectively and rationally, cease making false statements and related reports, and take concrete actions to safeguard the healthy development of bilateral military relations.”
They're not happy about the report from the Department of Defense about the Chinese military ambitions and potential threat, calling it false and distorted.
Running to more than 150 pages, the Defense Department report examined the PLA’s technical capabilities, doctrines and the ultimate aims of China’s military buildup. It said it includes becoming a “practical instrument” of China’s statecraft with an active role in advancing Beijing’s foreign policy and “aims to revise aspects of the international order.”
“Certainly, many factors will determine how this course unfolds,” the report said. “What is certain is that [the ruling Communist Party] has a strategic end state that it is working towards, which, if achieved and its accompanying military modernization left unaddressed, will have serious implications for U.S. national interests and the security of the international rules-based order.”
This year’s report comes as relations between Beijing and Washington have hit their lowest ebb in decades amid simmering disputes over trade, technology, Taiwan, human rights and the South China Sea.