Beijing takes aim at ‘deceptive’ Pentagon report on Chinese military

Defence ministry says report exaggerates the threat from China’s armed forces and the US should reflect on its own ‘risky’ approach

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Beijing says an annual Pentagon report misinterprets China’s defence policy. Photo: CCTV

Published: 9:00am, 22 Dec 2024

Beijing hit back on Saturday at a US Defence Department report on the Chinese military, labelling the report deceptive and calling the United States the “largest threat to global security”.

Chinese defence ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said China expressed “strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the annual report, which was released on Wednesday.

The report “misinterpreted China’s defence policy ... spread rumours, slandered the Chinese military, and exaggerated the ‘China military threat’,” Zhang said in a ministry statement.

The China Military Power Report has been released each year for the past two decades and is the Pentagon’s most comprehensive unclassified report on China’s defences.

The 182-page document relates mostly to developments in China up to December last year but does cover some major events in 2024, including a new section on corruption investigations of defence officials.

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It also highlighted an expansion in quantity and type of weapons in China’s nuclear arsenal, saying the number of nuclear warheads had grown by about 20 per cent to 600 in the year to mid-2024.