China protests against US report on its military

China has lodged a strong diplomatic protest with the US over a Pentagon report portraying Chinese military as a threat.
Chinese Defence Ministry's spokesman Geng Yansheng expressed "strong dissatisfaction" and "firm opposition" to the report and said, "China has made representations to the United States."
His reaction came after the US Department of Defence released its annual report on China's military, playing up its threat and opacity.
The 83-page report titled "Military and Security Development involving the People's Republic of China 2013," also makes accusations over China's moves to assert its sovereignty in the neighbourhood and questions the direction of China's defence policies.

Geng said China has always adhered to the path of peaceful development, pursuing a military strategy which is defensive in nature.
China's military build-up, meeting the country's needs of upholding sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, is part of the country's justified rights and does not target any specific country, state-run Xinhua quoted Geng as saying.

He said that the US side has invested heavily in developing state-of-the-art weapons and building up cyber attack troops in recent years, and it is in no position to criticise China's defence and military development.
Indirectly hitting out Japan and South East Asian countries, he said certain neighbouring countries have provoked disputes which have threatened China's territorial integrity and maritime rights since last year, emboldened by their supporters, and their behaviour serves as the root cause of tension in the region.

However, the Pentagon report confuses right and wrong and misleads global public opinion, which is extremely irresponsible, he said.
Meanwhile, Geng expressed firm opposition to the rhetoric used in regard to the mainland's military threat to Taiwan, dismissing it as sabotaging cross-Strait relations which have made great headway in recent years and finding excuses for arms sales to Taiwan.
The release of such a report by the US side runs counter to its pledge of building a healthy, stable and reliable army-to-army relationship, and damages mutual trust, Geng said, urging the United States to promote its pledged army ties with concrete actions.