Chinese Government Rejects Pentagon Report on Country's Military Ambition

China dismissed a U.S. Defense Department report on its expanding military ambitions as lacking in “objective facts.”

The report improperly concluded that China suspended defense ties with the U.S. and was threatening Taiwan with a military buildup, Ministry of Defense Spokesman Geng Yansheng said in a statement.

A Pentagon report issued Aug. 16 said China is pursuing the military capability to operate as far as the Indian Ocean and further into the Pacific. New weapons provide an enhanced ability to operate far afield, and China continues a military buildup opposite Taiwan even with improved economic ties, the Defense Department said in an annual report to Congress.

China “firmly follows a defensive national defense policy” and is taking a “peaceful path to development,” Geng said in the statement. The U.S. report “is not conducive to improving relations between the two militaries,” he said.

“The report made absurd comments on China’s normal defense works and exaggerated China’s military prowess, trying to plant this notion of a ‘China threat’,” Jiang Yu, a spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement on its Web site today. The U.S. should focus on things that are more beneficial to both countries, the statement said.

--Michael Forsythe in Beijing. Editor: Bill Austin

To contact Bloomberg News staff on this story: Michael Forsythe in Beijing +8610-6649-7580 or mforsythe@bloomberg.net

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