Beijing—China on Wednesday condemned a Pentagon report for claiming Beijing wants to double its stockpile of nuclear warheads within a decade as it seeks to deter the United States from any intervention linked to Taiwan.
The Pentagon’s annual study on China’s military power issued Tuesday said it has already matched or outstripped the US military in several areas of defense.
It added that the People’s Liberation Army aims to be ready to win any conflict with the US over self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory.
China’s defence ministry called the report “utterly wrong” and a misinterpretation of Beijing’s “defense policy and military strategy.”
The report “defamed China’s military modernisation, defence expenditure, nuclear policy and other issues”, the ministry said in a statement.
The two superpowers are locked in a broad power struggle sweeping in trade, technology, defence and political influence.
Meanwhile, Malacañang on Wednesday said it does not see a need for the Philippines to copy the US decision to blacklist Chinese firms to show that it does not condone Beijing’s construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this remark after President Rodrigo Duterte decided to allow Chinese companies banned in the US to continue operating in the country.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. earlier recommended terminating local contracts with any Chinese companies involved in the reclamations in the disputed waters.
China has applauded President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to proceed with an airport project involving a Chinese company that was blacklisted by the US for its role in the building of artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea.
Ambassador to Manila Huang Xilian stressed that the Duterte administration’s decision is clearly in pursuit of an independent foreign policy “in line with the fundamental interests of the Philippines and its people.”
“I believe that any attempt to undermine the normal economic cooperation between China and the Philippines will never succeed,” Huang said, in a statement.
The US government earlier identified at least 24 state-owned Chinese companies, including subsidiaries of the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), helped the Chinese military “construct and militarize the internationally condemned artificial islands in the South China Sea.”
Washington said these Chinese firms must be held responsible and that individuals connected to these firms, including their immediate family members, will be barred from entering the US.
Beijing said the report was the latest example of US scaremongering to justify its own military spending — the highest in the world.
“China has always pursued a defensive national defence policy and everyone knows that China is a builder of world peace,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters on Wednesday.
The Pentagon report said China is determined to project its power eastward into the Pacific beyond Taiwan and to squeeze the United States out of the region.
China has in turn blamed Washington, which has military bases across the Pacific, for rising tensions in Asia.
Tensions between the two superpowers have simmered over the South China Sea in recent weeks, where China asserts territorial claims disputed by neighbours including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Taiwan.
The Pentagon said last month that Chinese drills involving ballistic missile launches in the sea threatened regional security.
Beijing, meanwhile, has blasted the “tyrannical” blacklisting by Washington of two dozen state-owned Chinese companies involved in building China’s regional bases. With Rey Requejo