Chinese Army: The United States is the greatest threat to world peace

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The Chinese Defense Ministry on Sunday condemned a US report on Chinese military ambitions, stating that it is the United States that poses the greatest threat to international order and world peace. The US Department of Defense released its annual report on the Chinese Army's movements and targets on September 2, stating that they would have serious implications for US national interests and the security of the rules based international order.

Defense Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian described the report as a gratuitous distortion of China's aspirations and of the relationship between the People's Liberation Army and the country's 1.4 billion people.

He said, many years of evidence show that the United States is the instigator of regional conflict, the violator of international order and the destroyer of world peace. Instead of reflecting on itself, the United States published an alleged report that made false comments about China's military construction and normal defense. We ask the United States to look at China's national defense and military construction objectively and rationally, stop making false claims and related reports, and take concrete steps to safeguard the healthy development of bilateral military relations.

The more than 150 page Defense Department report assessed the technical capabilities and doctrines of the People's Liberation Army, as well as the ultimate goals of its military growth. Among them, the text noted was to become a practical instrument of Chinese state policy with an active role in advancing Beijing's foreign policy and aspires to review aspects of the international order.

This year's report was published at the worst moment in relations between the two countries in decades, marked by frictions in trade and technology, the situation in Taiwan, human rights and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.