“Many years of evidence shows that it is the US that is the fomenter of regional unrest, the violator of the international order and the destroyer of world peace,” Col. Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China, asserted on Sunday, as reported by the Associated Press.
He argued that the US military’s presence and actions in Iraq, Syria and Libya have led to more than 800,000 deaths and the displacement of millions of individuals.
“Rather than reflecting on itself, the US issued a so-called report that made false comments about China’s normal defense and military construction,” he said.
“We call on the US to view China’s national defense and military construction objectively and rationally, cease making false statements and related reports, and take concrete actions to safeguard the healthy development of bilateral military relations.”
The Pentagon’s 2020 China Military Power Report, delivered to the US Congress earlier this month, claimed “what is certain is that the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] has a strategic end state that it is working towards, which if achieved and its accompanying military modernization left unaddressed, will have serious implications for US national interests and the security of the international rules-based order.”
Wu slammed the report on Sunday, calling it a “wanton distortion” of China’s intentions, as well as of the People’s Liberation Army’s relationship with the Chinese public.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently drew attention to China’s citizenry, arguing earlier this month to Fox Business host Lou Dobbs that a “Cold War analogy has some relevance” in regard to US-China relations, but the challenges posed by the “country with 1.4 billion people” are more “economic challenges.”
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray declared in July that the “greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China.”