ANKARA (AA): China on Monday slammed the latest Pentagon report whichclaimed Beijing’s military modernization has the “potential to erode coreU.S. advantages in technology and operations”.
Addressing a news conference in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmanGeng Shuang said that the Pentagon report has “made many untrue remarks onChinese policy and also deliberately distorted China’s strategic intentionand spread the China threat theory,” Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.
The Pentagon had also claimed that the Chinese army was mullingconstruction of an army base in Pakistan.
“We firmly oppose that. Facts have proven that China is committed topeaceful development and following a national defense policy that itsdefensive in nature,” Geng said.
Urging U.S. to abandon what he called “zero sum game and cold warmentality”, Geng said: “We believe our two militaries should strengthencooperation and dialogue to avoid miscalculation leading to conflict.”
“The U.S. should look China’s development in an objective manner and stopissuing such irresponsible reports year after year and do more to improveour military to military ties,” he added.
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China also protested the sailing of two U.S. warships near islands itclaims in the disputed South China Sea.
U.S. guided-missile destroyers ‘Preble’ and ‘Chung Hoon’ travelled within12 nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson Reefs in the Spratly Islands whichBeijing calls Nansha, PTI said.
Geng said the Chinese navy identified the U.S. vessels and asked them toleave as per Chinese law.
