Beijing lashes US report on Chinese military

published: 2017-06-13 13:00:53(8 Jun 2017) China once again criticised the Pentagon’s annual assessment on Thursday, saying it is “full of prejudice against China and shows a Cold War mentality”. Following her comments on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that the report, which highlighted China’s construction of military facilities on man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea and speculated that Beijing would likely build more bases overseas, has many contradictions and loopholes. China is now building its first overseas base in Djibouti, which it says will help facilitate its participation in anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden and United Nations peacekeeping operations in the region. The base is near Camp Lemonnier, the US base in the Horn of Africa nation, although American military leaders have said they don’t see it as threatening US operations. “We believe that the US and China can engage with each other to jointly safeguard world peace and stability. In short, we hope the relevant people in the US military can drop the Cold War mentality and view China’s development including the ordinary and necessary national defence development under an objective and rational light,” Hua said. At the same briefing China condemned Wednesday’s twin extremist attacks in Tehran, which killed at least 17 people and wounded over 40. Hua said that the Chinese embassy in Tehran had no reports of Chinese casualties from the attack. Hua also mentioned that China is in close contact with Russia to coordinate developments affecting the US Missile defence system currently deployed in southeastern South Korea. China said the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence system affects both nations’ interests. South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in has recently demanded an environmental assessment on the deployment site, and thus suspended operations. Analysts say the decision would make it difficult for the four launchers to be deployed this year.

China says the deployment has no impact on promoting de-nuclearisation in the region, nor does it create a better strategic balance in the region.