Defense ministry refutes 'China threat' hype by US officials

Rumor mongers will fail in their attempts to smear China, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday in response to some officials from the United States who have hyped up the "China threat" theory recently.

"All rumor mongers will have only one ending, and that is a total collapse," said Senior Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, adding that spreading the so-called "China threat" theory is a customary tactic of some US politicians.

He made the remarks after General Mark Milley, the US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, early this week accused China of becoming more aggressive both in terms of rhetoric and activity. US Defense Secretary Austin Lloyd and Charles Brown, chief of staff of the US Air Force, also made similar comments recently.

Wu expressed firm opposition to their comments and said there are two reasons they were made.

"The first is to make excuses for its own military development through hyping up threats," he said. "The second is to smear China to serve its strategic purpose of containing and suppressing the nation."

The spokesman reiterated that China firmly refuted those "lies" and that the Chinese military would always be a "staunch force for safeguarding world peace" by its practical actions. He also stressed that the country will "certainly not give up its right to develop because of the slander from the US side".

"The development and growth of the Chinese military cannot be changed by any others' will, and no force can stop it," he said.