Chinese state media said yesterday that a Pentagon report exaggerated Chinese military capabilities to justify US sales of military hardware to Taiwan.
"The report maliciously exaggerates China's ability to wage computer warfare and its space capabilities," said a commentary in the People's Daily headlined "An Outmoded Report."
"These reports by the US Defense Department have been used in the past as a pretext to justify continued weapons sales to Taiwan," it said.
The editorial marked the latest salvo in a verbal tit-for-tat since the Pentagon report earlier this week expressed a range of concerns about China's growing military might.
These included what the US called a lack of transparency and concerns over Beijing's development of cruise and ballistic missiles, its testing of an anti-satellite weapon last year and an apparent rise in cyber-espionage.
"China's expanding and improving military capabilities are changing East Asian military balances. Improvements in China's strategic capabilities have implications beyond the Asia-Pacific region," the Pentagon report said.
China blasted the report on Tuesday, with a foreign ministry spokesman telling the US to drop its "Cold War mentality."
His comments came the same day China announced a 17.6 percent increase in defense spending to about US$57.2 billion this year, following a similar increase last year.
However, on Wednesday US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the declared budget is just a portion of China's actual spending and reiterated US concerns over Beijing's military intentions.
"Part of the issue is what we don't know," Gates told reporters in Washington.
The Pentagon estimates China's military spending last year was between US$97 billion and US$139 billion, well in excess of Beijing's official budgeted figure of US$45 billion.
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