China Slams Pentagon Report on Its Military: End This Annual ‘Belly-Aching’

By: American Decency Staff

Criticizing the latest Department of Defense report on Chinese military developments, Beijing called the legally-mandated assessment to Congress “annual belly-aching” that should be abandoned.

A response posted on the defense ministry and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) websites said the report was flawed, “ill-intentioned,” a “vainglorious noise,” filled with “cliches” about a Chinese military threat, and a reflection of a “Cold War” mentality.

If the Pentagon valued the fragile mutual trust that has been established in military-to-military relations, it said, it would cancel the reports.

The foreign ministry also slammed the report. Spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement it was compiled with ulterior motives and misrepresented a military buildup which he said “is completely aimed at safeguarding the country’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The report released Thursday tracked all aspects of China’s military modernization, including the expansion of PLA Navy capabilities in pursuit of a “growing ability to project power at increasingly longer ranges.”

It said China’s military program has “become increasingly focused on military investments for a range of missions beyond China’s coast.”

Long-distance PLA Navy deployments have become routine, with naval task groups going beyond the “first island chain” nine times in 2013, including a first-ever mission to Latin America.  The first island chain roughly encompasses the East and South China Seas.

(A Chinese naval group is currently plying the west coast of Africa, making port calls in eight countries including Nigeria, Angola and South Africa.)

“The PLA Navy has the largest force of major combatants, submarines, and amphibious warfare ships in Asia,” the report stated. “China’s naval forces include some 77 principal surface combatants, more than 60 submarines, 55 medium and large amphibious ships, and roughly 85 missile-equipped small combatants.”

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