Sense of security comes from peacemaking abilities

US President Joe Biden signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022, which authorizes $770 billion in defense spending, an increase of 5 percent from this year, on Monday.

Even as the debt-ridden US government has repeatedly raised its debt ceiling to avoid a shutdown, its military spending has soared for six years consecutively, exposing the government's distorted outlook.

The US' annual military spending accounts for nearly 40 percent of the global total. But that still seems not enough to quell the anxiety of the strategists in Washington.

Congress's parsimony over the government's spending to improve people's livelihoods constitutes a stark contrast with its generosity when it comes to military spending.

It is the big companies in and related to the war industry and their lobbying groups that benefit from the exaggerated sense of insecurity of the US.

Ending the 20-year war in Afghanistan has not helped bring down the military spending, and the increase, as the act indicates, is largely dedicated to dealing with China.

The act has many parts related to China. The Pacific deterrence plan, the statement on the Taiwan policy and the confidential big strategy on China it demands the US president implement, all of which clearly demonstrate the US' intention of trying to damage China's development environment by creating antithesis and division in the Indo-Pacific.

Washington should be reminded that as long as it tries to play divide-and-rule tricks across the Taiwan Straits, it is playing a dangerous game.

China will not take part in an arms race with the US. The share of its military spending in its gross domestic product remains comparatively stable. China has no intention of taking the initiative to start a war with the US anywhere in the world. But China will never allow the US to harm its core interests. No matter how much money the US spends on its military, that resolve will not change.

A true sense of security does not originate from a country's capability to wage war, but in its ability to promote peace.