Beijing slams US military officers’ remarks on ‘China threat’

BEIJING: A spokesperson for the Chinese military said it firmly opposes US military officers’ remarks hyping up the so-called “China threat” at the Senate armed services committee’s 2020 fiscal year defence budget hearing.

The US side’s remarks disregard the facts and render the so-called “Chinese military threat,” which exemplifies the “zero-sum” game Cold War mentality and is not conducive to the healthy development of Sino-US relations and the two militaries, said Wu Qian, spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defence, on Friday .

“We have noticed the US defence department always likes to play ‘small abacus’ (an idiom meaning selfishly scheming) when seeking military budgets, in an attempt to gain more benefits for itself by rendering the threat of other countries.

“This practice is short-sighted and very dangerous,” Wu said.

“We demand that the US side abandon the Cold War mentality, objectively and rationally view China’s national defence and military building, stop making false remarks, and take concrete actions to promote the healthy and stable development of relations between the two countries and the two militaries,” the spokesperson said.

China, as a facilitator of world peace, a contributor to global development and a maintainer of international order, has firmly taken the path of peaceful development and steadfastly pursued a national defence policy that is defensive in nature, he said.

The Chinese military adheres to independence and self-reliance and relies on its own strength to promote military modernisation, Wu said, adding that the development and growth of China’s military power is the development and growth of the world’s peace forces. — Xinhua