The Chinese Military’s Integrity Is Not Afraid of America’s False Accusations

On May 8, the United States Department of Defense released the 2015 annual report of Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China. The report from this year still retains the structure from the past, the main content consists of six chapters: Annual Update, Understanding China’s Strategy, Force Modernization Goals and Trends, Resources for Force Modernization, Force Modernization for a Taiwan Contingency, U.S.-China Military-to-Military Contacts, and other special topics including Space Lift Capabilities and Launch Trends, China’s Development and Testing of Missile Defense, and China’s Land Reclamation in the South China Sea.

As usual, this year’s “The Military Power of the People’s Republic of China” continues to sensationalize the “China threat theory,” perversely denouncing China’s national defense and military intentions, forces development, space, network, military transparency, act on Taiwan and other various topics, ignoring China’s active effort in safekeeping regional and global stability and deliberately distorting China’s peaceful development, foreign policy and protection over the South China Sea.

First, on the topic of Taiwan, the report takes no account of the fact that this is a domestic affair for China and insists that by interfering in the domestic Taiwan Relations Act and providing weapons to Taiwan, it can maintain the so-called “military balance” between the two shores. This kind of aggression that tampers with China’s domestic affairs and obstructs China’s path to unification is the main barrier that affects the military development between China and the U.S.

Secondly, the report disregards China’s enormous forbearance and self-restraint for maintaining the peace on the East China Sea and on the South China Sea and recklessly distorts China’s upright response to Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam and various other countries’ provocations. It also irrationally denounces China for using “low-intensity coercion to advance its maritime jurisdiction over disputed areas of the East China Sea and South China Sea.”

The report never mentioned anything about the Spratly Islands of China, which are now illegally occupied by the Philippines, Vietnam and other various countries to operate large-scale sea reclamation and military development projects; yet the report keeps on criticizing China’s usual proceedings on its homeland. Recently, a well-known American think-tank used satellite photos taken by an American company to discover that from 2010 to April 30, 2015, Vietnam had built over 80,000 square meters of reclamation land on China’s Vietnam-controlled Spratly Islands and West London Reef. However, the report made no mention of this.

The report admitted that the Philippines did “deliberately” leave their amphibious assault ship “stranded” on the Second Thomas Shoal of China’s Spratly Islands in 1999; however, it didn’t object to the provocation from the Philippines, but instead condemned the Chinese Coast Guards’ law-abiding action for protecting China’s sovereignty over the region.

These are all proof of America’s prejudice and double-standard towards China. This is unbelievable.

Thirdly, the report thoughtlessly questions China’s usual national defense and force modernization goals, accusing China of developing the military ability to thwart the interference of a third-country in a large-scale war like the Taiwan Strait Crisis, which is called “anti-access/area denial” warfare. Furthermore, it also criticizes [China] by stating that the development of the Chinese military lacks transparency, saying things like the armed force of the Chinese military modernization plan has the ability to attack the West Pacific’s air, ocean, outer space, electromagnetic field and information domain from a remote distance.

America has been producing an annual military report toward specific countries since the Cold War era. The Cold War ended long ago, but for 16 years, the U.S. has continued to release the apparent “Annual Report: The Military Power of the People’s Republic of China,” displaying its hostility and prejudice towards China and severely damaging each other’s trust. In truth, China follows a self-justified national defense and active defensive military strategy, and China’s strengthened national defense development is intended to maintain the country’s sovereignty, security, unified territories and to ensure its peaceful expansion. On the topic of the sea dispute, China doesn’t cause trouble, but it is not afraid of trouble. China’s stance of protecting its territorial autonomy will not budge, and at the same time it will take the lead to resolve the dispute through discussions. America should stop criticizing China’s regular military development and protection over marine sovereignty, stop releasing similar reports regarding China and use real actions to push a healthy and stable growth between the two countries and their militaries.

The author is a Naval Research Institute researcher.