Defense ministry slams recent U.S. report on Chinese military development

BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of National Defense on Saturday slammed a recent U.S. Department of Defense report on military and security developments involving China.

According to ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang, the report misinterpreted China's defense policies, speculated about China's military capacity development, flagrantly interfered in China's domestic affairs, desperately slandered the Chinese military and exaggerated the so-called military threat posed by China.

China "strongly deplores and firmly opposes" all these statements, Zhang said.

China adheres to the path of peaceful development and a national defense policy that is defensive in nature. However, the United States is leveraging its military strength to impose regime changes and incite "color revolutions" in other countries, causing extremely serious civilian casualties and property damage, and leading to severe humanitarian disasters, the spokesperson said.

"The 'war-addicted' United States has become the biggest destroyer of international order and the greatest threat to global security," said Zhang.