An annual report from the Pentagon titled “Military and security developments involving the People’s Republic of China” mirrors China’s military plan and diplomacy in projecting itself as a power player in international affairs.
Explaining China’s international quest, the Pentagon said that China believes that its relations with Russia energize its aspiration towards becoming a major power in global affairs.
Earlier on Thursday, the U.S. Defense Department hinted that China remains a source of material support for Moscow’s protracted war in Ukraine. Though it is further said that China’s support seems discreet as it has yet to make headlines since Russia’s invasion of the former Soviet Union territory,
The Defense Department stated that China, while building a modern military aimed at repositioning itself for a war with the U.S., has also intensified pressure on Taiwan, refusing to accept requests for bilateral talks in order to ensure mutual understanding between them.
In support of this, a statement from the Pentagon says that the Chinese Army is “evolving capabilities and strengthening China’s ability to fight and win wars” against a “strong enemy,” countering an intervention by a third party in a conflict along the PRC’s periphery, and projecting power globally.
The report on China, which was released by the Pentagon, also warned about China’s growing nuclear capabilities and threat, which it says may lead China into “coercive and risky operational behavior”. This, it says, will lead to a war against US military assets in international airspace over the East and South China Seas.
In the report, Chinese President Xi Jinping was quoted as having alluded to the fact that “Western countries led by the United States have implemented comprehensive containment, encirclement, and suppression against” China.
According to the report, China believes that “a confrontational United States” is a source of mutual conflict and lack of bilateralism.
The report concluded that China “concerns itself with a determined effort to amass military weapons, improving on all aspects of its economic and military power and consolidating on the “internal and external elements of national power with an aim of placing itself in a pole position and ahead of the U.S.”
