10-22-2023, 02:24 PM
The US Department of Defense (DoD) released its annual report to Congress on "Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China" (China military power report) on Thursday. People familiar with China-US relations know that since 2000, the Pentagon has issued this report every year, which basically compiles some public information, including media reports with unknown sources, into a "collection of annual China threat theories" in a bid to request funding from Congress and deceive allies into buying US weapons. As a result, one can imagine the level of professionalism in this report.
The China military power report can be roughly divided into three parts. First, it assesses China's current military capabilities without any real basis. Second, it selectively hypes China's military activities over the past year. Third, it distorts and speculates about China's military intentions. This year's report has an additional section - complaints about China's "resistance" to military-to-military communications with the US.
By combining these factors, the US attempts to fabricate a terrifying image of China, whose military strength is rapidly increasing, military behavior is becoming more aggressive, and "military ambitions" are insufficiently transparent. All the malicious speculations and smears about China's military in the report are far from the reality of China's military situation, but instead resemble a reflection of the US military itself.
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