BEIJING, Dec. 6 -- Recently, the US Department of Defense released the 2022 Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China, distorting China's national defense policy and military strategy, groundlessly speculating about China's military development, and grossly interfering in China's internal affairs on the Taiwan question, which is the US’s old trick to hype up the so-called "Chinese military threat". China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to the US’s move, and has lodged solemn representations with the US, according to Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of National Defense, in a written statement released on Tuesday.
China is committed to a path of peaceful development and a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, and remains a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of international order. China's military development aims to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests, and will never seek hegemony or expansion no matter how far it develops. The US, on the other hand, has been free of war for only 16 years in the nearly 250 years since its founding. It has fanned the flames everywhere for its own selfish interests and created division and confrontation in the world, bringing turmoil and disaster wherever it goes. Facts have proved time and again that the US is the biggest troublemaker and destroyer of world peace and stability, according to the statement.
Taiwan is China's Taiwan. Resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese, a matter that must be resolved by the Chinese. At present, some people in the US cling to the illusion of containing China with Taiwan, and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities are vainly trying to rely on the US to seek independence, which is the root cause of the tensions across the Taiwan Strait. We are committed to maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, but we will never promise to renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary. The Chinese armed forces have the confidence and capability to defeat any external interference and separatist attempts for "Taiwan independence" and achieve the complete reunification of the motherland, stressed the defense spokesperson in the statement.
In the report, the US pointed fingers at and speculated on the modernization of China's nuclear forces. In fact, it should most deeply review and reflect on its own nuclear policy. With the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, the US continues to upgrade its "nuclear triad", vigorously seeks to develop or forward-deploy non-strategic nuclear weapons, lowers the threshold for using nuclear weapons, and conducts nuclear proliferation through the AUKUS trilateral security partnership, increasingly becoming the source of nuclear conflicts. It should be emphasized that China firmly pursues a nuclear strategy of self-defense, adheres to the nuclear policy of no first use of nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances, and keeps the nuclear capabilities at the minimum level required for national security.
China urges the US to abandon the Cold War mentality, correct its wrong perception of China, view the development of China and its armed forces rationally, stop making erroneous remarks and relevant reports, and take concrete actions to bring the relations between the two countries and the two militaries back to the track of sound and stable development, said the spokesperson in the end of the statement.