China’s defense ministry has lodged a complaint with the US, slamming as “pure guesswork” a Pentagon report that claimed the Chinese military was likely preparing for strikes against the United States and its allies.
In a late statement, the ministry insisted that the report distorted China’s strategic intentions and inflated the “so-called China military threat.”
“China’s military expresses resolute opposition to this and has lodged stern representations with the US side,” it said.
Pentagon’s claim was made in an annual report, which underscored Beijing’s efforts to expand its global influence with defense expenditures that exceeded $190 billion in 2017, according to US estimates.
This is while the Pentagon had a budget of nearly $600 billion for 2017. Just last week, US President Donald Trump signed the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that granted a top-line budget of $717 billion for the American…