BEIJING (AP/RT) – The U.S. intentionally hypes up the “China threat” as an excuse to boost its military spending in an effort to maintain its global dominance, the Chinese defense ministry said after U.S. President Joe Biden signed the 2023 U.S. National Defense Authorization Act into law.
“Facts have proved more than once that the U.S. is the direct threat to the international order and the culprit of the regional turbulence,” said the ministry’s spokesman, Colonel Tan Kefei.
The statement added that in pursuit of its own interests, the U.S. on multiple occasions “either waged wars against other countries or created conflicts, causing massive casualties and displacement of innocent civilians.”
The $858 billion U.S. military budget for the fiscal year 2023, which authorized $10 billion in security assistance and fast-tracked weapons procurement for Taiwan, is yet another in a series of provocative moves that “seriously jeopardize the peace and stability in Taiwan Straits and increase the risk of China-U.S. military confrontation.”
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army further vowed to “resolutely safeguard national reunification and territorial integrity of the country,” warning that Washington has no other choice but to “respect China’s core interests and major concerns.”
Washington must drop its “old trick of unilateral bullying” that it plays with Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call earlier this week. “It has not worked with China in the past, nor will it work in the future.”
Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi defended his country’s position on the war in Ukraine on Sunday and signaled that China would deepen ties with Russia in the coming year.
Wang, speaking by video to a conference in the Chinese capital, also blamed America for the deterioration in relations between the world’s two largest economies, saying that China has “firmly rejected the United States’ erroneous China policy.”
China has pushed back against Western pressure on trade, technology, human rights and its claims to a broad swath of the western Pacific, accusing the U.S. of bullying. Its refusal to condemn the war on Ukraine and join others in imposing sanctions on Russia has further frayed ties and fueled an emerging divide with much of Europe.
Wang said that China would “deepen strategic mutual trust and mutually beneficial cooperation” with Russia. Warships from the two countries held joint naval drills in the East China Sea last week.
“With regard to the Ukraine crisis, we have consistently upheld the fundamental principles of objectivity and impartiality, without favoring one side or the other, or adding fuel to the fire, still less seeking selfish gains from the situation,” Wang said, according to an official text of his remarks.