US: Chinese military upsetting power balance

China dismissed a new report claiming its growing military power was upsetting the world’s power balance as a “gross distortion” by the US today.

The Foreign Ministry described it as “interference” in China’s affairs and made a formal complaint to the United States.

The US Defence Department report said that China’s rapidly growing military strength is shifting the military balance in the region and could be used to force its claim in disputed territories.

The report, an annual assessment for the US Congress, said China continues to develop weapons that threaten rival Taiwan, even though tensions between the two sides have been reduced significantly. The report also said that China is developing longer range capabilities that could have an effect beyond the Asia-Pacific region.

A Chinese government spokesman said the country has pursued peaceful development and that its military policy is defensive in nature.

“We urge the US side to respect this fundamental fact, drop the Cold War mentality and bias ... and stop making groundless accusations against China so as not to further damage the two countries’ military relations,” he said. “It is a gross distortion of facts and interference into China’s internal affairs.”

The report comes in the wake of heightened tensions between the US and China after Chinese vessels this month harassed a US Navy surveillance ship in international waters in the South China Sea.

US-China military-to-military talks resumed recently after a five-month suspension over US arms sales to Taiwan last year.

The report noted that the “pace and scope of China’s military transformation have increased” in recent years with the purchase of foreign weapons and greater spending on new technologies and reforms of the armed forces. It said China continued to develop “disruptive” technologies such as anti-satellite weapons and satellite communication jammers.

China’s military spending has increased by double-digit percentages for nearly 20 years. This year China announced a 14.9% rise in military spending to $70bn (€51bn).

The country’s spending, which puts it on par with Japan, Russia and Britain, is still dwarfed by US military expenditures, which are nearly 10 times as large.