Q: The US Department of Defence recently issued its 2012 Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China and commented on the military development of China. How does China comment?
A: The US Defence Department's report spreads the "China threat theory" by pointing fingers at the justified and normal defence enhancement of China. China is firmly opposed to that and has made representations with the US.
China is firmly committed to the road of peaceful development, adheres to the defence policy that is defensive in nature and steadfastly maintains and promotes peace, stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific and the whole world. China's development of a limited military capability is completely for the sake of safeguarding national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity without aiming at any country or any specific target. For countries that harbour no hostility toward China, they have no need to feel concerned or worry about that.
We urge the US to respect facts, change its mindset, stop the wrong move of issuing similar reports year after year and do more things to promote bilateral and military-to-military relations as well as mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries, instead of the contrary.