Defense ministry slams US report criticizing PLA development

The United States' newly released National Security Strategy, which discussed challenges with China and questioned the normal development of the Chinese military, is the result of misunderstanding of China-US relations and the miscalculation of China's development, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

"The report, which is full of Cold War mentality and promotes the idea of a zero-sum game, hyped up geopolitical conflicts and major power competition, viciously making camp confrontations by ideology," Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense said at a news conference.

He said the US report "went against the era's subject of peace and development" as well as the common expectation of the international community.

Tan said the global community "has already reached a consensus on the roles that China plays" as a founding member of the United Nations and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and this consensus "cannot be smeared by any country issuing a report".

Nations worldwide agree that China remains unswervingly on the road of peaceful development, actively participates in the reform and construction of global governance system and has always been the firm defender of the UN-centered international system and the global order based on international law, he said.

The spokesman also slammed the US for building up its army and creating enemies and forming cliques.

"The US is pursuing 'integrated deterrence' in the military, accelerating the construction of the 'Trinity' nuclear force, making excuses for seeking and consolidating hegemony and power, and putting its own interests above international justice," he said, stressing that these moves are a "major threat and grave challenge" to the international system and order.

"China and the United States gain by cooperation and lose by confrontation," the official said, urging the US to view China and the development of the Chinese military in an objective and rational way, and work with China to bring China-US relations back to the track of sound and stable development.