China has decried a Pentagon report on the country's military development which it said was a misrepresentation of facts.
Expressing "strong dissatisfaction" and "firm opposition" to the report, Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said in Beijing on Monday that China's "justified and normal military development" had been unfairly depicted in the report. China has made representations to the U.S. over the report's content, he added.
China's military expansion is for the exclusive purpose of safeguarding the country's sovereignty, security and developmental interests, Geng said, adding that its development was in line with the country's need to deal with multiple security threats.
China has firmly adhered to a peaceful development path and adopted a defense policy that is wholly defensive in nature and that China has always maintained a transparent strategic intent and made efforts to expand military exchanges. Accusations of a possible Chinese military threat are "wrong and groundless," Geng was quoted by the state-run Xinhua news agency as saying.
The U.S. is trying to find excuses to sell arms to Taiwan by deliberately playing up the imbalance of military power between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan and sowing dissension among them, irrespective of the peaceful development of relations across the Taiwan Strait, he said and added that "the Chinese side firmly opposes such moves."
Geng also denied the the U.S. accusation of China engaging in cyberattacks against that country, saying such remarks were untrue. The United States' suspicions and efforts to discredit China go against that country's promise to build healthy, stable, reliable and sustainable military ties with China, he said.
Geng said the U.S. must respect facts, change its mindset and stop issuing similar reports year after year, and instead take concrete actions to promote bilateral military relations.
The U.S. Defense Department issued its annual report titled "Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China" on May 18.
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