Pentagon must acknowledge U.S. threat before judging China

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Editor's note: Liu Jianxi is an opinion editor for CGTN Digital. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The status of Taiwan “has served as the primary driver for China's military modernization,” asserted the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), in its newly released report.

Published earlier this week, the report warned that the country's rapid military modernization may heighten its confidence in the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities and eventually erode the Chinese leadership's determination in keeping the Taiwan issue below the threshold of war.

Washington's “China threat” anxiety has elevated to an absurd level. Upon its release, the DIA's report was rebuked by Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying as “ridiculous” and “unprofessional.”

China has reiterated its sincerity and commitments to peaceful reunification, but the United States is deliberately turning a deaf ear to it. Worse still, Washington is resorting to every possible means to blacken Beijing's justified military construction, which is a basic right of a country to safeguard national security.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying gives a press conference in Beijing, January 17, 2019. /Photo from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs

China's military modernization is a natural result of its economic rise and has nothing to do with the so-called pursuit for hegemony. Despite leaps in recent years, China's military is still lagging behind that of the United States.

It is zero-sum mindset, instead of China's military modernization, that plays the role as the primary driver for the DIA's prejudiced report.

Moreover, the Taiwan question belongs to China's domestic affairs, with which the DIA has no right to interfere. It is Washington's intervention, rather than China's military modernization, that brings about the real threat to the island.

As Chinese President Xi Jinping clarified at the 40th anniversary of Message to Compatriots in Taiwan, cross-Strait reunification is the “trend of history.”

While the central government makes no promise to renounce the use of force on Taiwan, it “does not target compatriots in Taiwan, but the interference of external forces and the very small number of ‘Taiwan independence' separatists and their activities.”

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, at a press conference, January 16, 2019. /VCG Photo

Making unwarranted speculations on China's strategic intention and national defense, the United States is simply fabricating excuses to boost its own military deterrence. An exaggeration of China's military prowess is the most convenient way for the Pentagon to lure more budgets from the Congress and export its equipment around the world.

It is not the first time that the United States has listed China as a rival. In a National Security Strategy report released at the end of 2017, the Pentagon labelled China as a “strategic competitor” and “challenge” to American values.

Repeatedly hyping China's military “threat,” the United States, ironically, is the country that is arbitrary in military use, posing a real threat to the rest of the world.

Less than two decades after launching the Iraq war, which dragged the entire Middle East into the abyss of misery, the United States is shifting its focus to the Asia-Pacific region, and China, with its astounding rise, is the first to bear the brunt.

VCG Photo

The Cold War mentality is the root of Washington's aggression. Basking in its dominance on international affairs since World War II, the United States is still not ready to accept the rise of emerging countries and is on high alert of any potential challenge to its status.

As a result, it is taking every opportunity to contain Beijing, a move that is shooting itself on the foot in the 21st century where confrontation will lead a country nowhere.

In the era of global integration, cooperation is the best choice for both China and the United States. Taiwan concerns China's core interests and the United States must stop using the island as a pawn for selfish gains.

Instead of hyping the “China threat” theory, it is high time that the United States reflect more upon the threat that it itself is bringing to the rest of the world.

(Cover photo: 101 skyscraper, 509 meters in height in Taipei, November 24, 2018. /VCG Photo)

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