China hits Pentagon report

Defense Ministry: It’s pure guesswork

BEIJING (Reuters) — China’s Defense Ministry has lodged a complaint against the United States about a Pentagon report that said China’s military was likely training for strikes against the US and its allies, saying it was “pure guesswork.”

The assessment, at a time of heightened US-China tensions over trade, was contained in an annual report that highlighted China’s efforts to increase its global influence, with defense spending that the Pentagon estimated exceeded $190 billion last year.

In a statement late Friday, China’s Defense Ministry said the Pentagon report misrepresented China’s strategic intentions and exaggerated the “so-called China military threat.”

“China’s military expresses resolute opposition to this and has lodged stern representations with the US side,” it said.

China is on the path of peaceful development and pursues a defensive national strategy, and has always been a contributor to world peace and protector of the global order, according to the ministry.

“The Chinese military’s strengthening of modernization is to protect the country’s sovereignty, security and development interests, as well as global peace, stability and prosperity,” it said.

“The Chinese military’s reform, weapons development and defensive capabilities in the internet space are just and reasonable. The criticism in the US report is pure guesswork.”

The Pentagon report said that while the People’s Liberation Army had continued to extend operations, it was not clear what message Beijing was looking to send by carrying out bomber flights “beyond a demonstration of improved capabilities.”

This year, China’s air force landed bombers on islands and reefs in the South China Sea as part of a training exercise in the disputed region.

In January, the Pentagon put countering Beijing, along with Russia, at the center of a new national defense strategy.

China’s Defense Ministry said the “peaceful construction work” in the South China Sea was its right as a sovereign country, and it criticized the US for its freedom of navigation operations there.

The report by the US harms mutual trust between the two countries, according to the ministry.

“We demand that the US side abandon Cold War thinking, objectively and rationally view China’s defense and military construction, stop issuing the relevant reports and take actual steps to promote and protect the stable development of military-to-military relations,” it said.

While Washington and Beijing maintain a military-tomilitary relationship aimed at containing tensions, this has been tested in recent months, notably in May, when the Pentagon withdrew an invitation to China to join a multinational naval exercise.

In June, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis became the first Pentagon chief to visit China since 2014.