Beijing slams Pentagon report calling China leading security threat

China’s Defense Ministry says Beijing has reacted to a report by the Pentagon’s Center for National Strategy that identified China as a major security threat to the United States.

Defense Ministry spokesman Tan Kefei said countries that prioritize their interests over others and seek “integrated deterrence” in the Asia Pacific are considered a big and real challenge for the international system and the region.

Tan was reacting to the National Defense Strategy (NDS) 2022 released by the Pentagon last week, which identified China as a “pacing challenge” to focus on in cooperation with allies and partners.

The most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security was China’s increasingly coercive and aggressive efforts to reshape the Indo-Pacific region and the international system according to its authoritarian interests and preferences, the report said.

In the report, it is also stated that China seeks to coerce its neighbors and threaten their interests due to the weakening of the alliance and security partnerships of the United States in the Indo-Pacific region and the use of its growing capabilities such as its growing economic and military power.

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The report says the Pentagon claimed that China’s increasingly provocative rhetoric and coercive activities against Taiwan cause instability in the region, create the risk of miscalculation, and can threaten the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait.

Tan said the NDS calls into question China’s normal military development, but Beijing adheres to peaceful development and protects the international military centered on the United Nations.

He added that China’s strong military is a strong force to maintain global and regional peace and stability.

Tan also reiterated Beijing’s stance on Taiwan, saying that the island is part of China’s territory and that is an internal matter in which no foreign country should interfere.

The Americans are constantly questioning the One China principle and increasing their efforts to support Taiwan in order to control China. These actions seriously violate China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and endanger peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait region.

The declassified version of the NDS lists public versions of the Pentagon’s missile defense review as well as the nuclear posture review, which noted China’s nuclear development, which it said “presents new complexities.”

NPR stated that a nuclear strategy and force reduction are being considered to ensure the US’ ability to achieve deterrence and other goals regarding China.

China’s ministry said last week that such an approach would stimulate the “adjustment” of the world’s nuclear arms race.

Tan said that China adheres to its nuclear defense strategy and the principle of non-use from the beginning, and has kept its nuclear capability at a minimum level to maintain national security, and also participates in international nuclear disarmament processes.

On the contrary, the United States has broken its commitments and withdrawn from non-proliferation and arms control treaties and accelerated the development of nuclear weapons and their means of delivery. The United States has also lowered the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons and is cooperating with Britain and Australia on nuclear submarines, thereby increasing the risk of nuclear proliferation in the region.

Tan added that the US should be "objective and pragmatic" about China's military development and make more efforts to maintain regional and global peace and stability.

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