Washington's annual defense bill slammed

The Chinese Foreign Ministry condemned on Tuesday an annual United States national defense authorization act that contains negative China-related provisions, and vowed to take resolute and forceful measures to safeguard China's sovereignty, security and development interests.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning made the remarks after the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025, with its 107 mentions of China, was signed into law by US President Joe Biden on Monday.

China strongly opposes and deplores the act and has lodged strong representations with the US, Mao told a daily news conference, urging Washington not to implement negative China-related provisions of the NDAA.

She noted that Washington kept hyping up the so-called China threat narrative year after year, clamoring for military support to Taiwan, abusing state power to oppress Chinese technological and economic development, and limiting bilateral trade, economic and people-to-people exchanges.

Such moves undermined China's sovereignty, security and development interests, and disrupted the two sides' efforts in stabilizing bilateral relations, she said.

Mao urged the US to abandon its Cold War mentality and ideological bias, and view China's development and China-US relations in an objective and rational manner.

The US should earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, stop arming Taiwan, stop politicizing and weaponizing scientific and economic issues, and stop finding excuses for increasing military expenditure and maintaining military hegemony, she added.

This year's NDAA has authorized a record $895 billion in annual US military spending, covering provisions on purchases of military equipment and boosting competitiveness with archrivals, including China and Russia, Reuters reported.

US Senator Bernie Sanders, who voted against the bill, said, "We do not need to spend almost a trillion dollars on the military, while half a million Americans are homeless, children go hungry and elderly people are unable to afford to heat their homes in the winter."

zhoujin@chinadaily.com.cn