Increasing military spending by US meant to maintain its hegemony: China

ISTANBUL

China on Thursday said the increasing defense spending by the US was meant to “maintain its hegemony” in the world, state media reported.

Disapproving the US National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), China’s Defense Ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said the outgoing Biden administration has “played up the alleged ‘China military threat’ as an excuse to increase US military spending and maintain its hegemony.”

“This grossly interferes with China’s internal affairs and undermines world peace and stability. We are strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to it,” said Zhang.

Beijing was reacting to the latest defense bill for the next fiscal amounting to $895 billion signed by US President Joe Biden.

It identifies China as “one of the major challenges to the US national security.”

“China has no intention to challenge any country. In fact, the worst enemy of the US is the US itself. US military expenditure has already topped the world for long, which is still increasing rapidly year by year. This fully exposes the belligerent nature of the US and its obsession with hegemony and expansion,” said Zhang.

On arms supplies and sales to Taiwan, Zhang said: “Several pieces of US weaponry won’t be the magic straw that can save a drowning man; they are nothing but easy targets on the battlefields.”

“The People’s Liberation Army will comprehensively improve its combat readiness, enhance its capability to fight and win, and firmly smash any ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist plot and foreign interference,” he said, referring to the delivery of the first batch of M1A2T battle tanks to Taipei by the US.

The Biden administration has approved at least 17 sales to the island nation, claimed by China as its "breakaway province," since Democrats returned to the White House in 2021.

Separately, China's legislature has stripped two more PLA generals of their lawmaker status.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress said it removed Lt. Gen. You Haitao, former deputy commander of China’s army, and Vice-Admiral Li Pengcheng, former naval commander of the PLA Southern Theatre Command, from the country’s top legislature.

It said the duo was suspected of “serious violation of laws and discipline.”

Last month, Beijing suspended Miao Hua, a member of the powerful Central Military Commission and the director of its Political Work Department, who is being probed for alleged corruption.