(RepublicanInformer.com)- Last week, during its final press conference of the year, China’s Defense Ministry condemned what it called the United States’ defensive posture toward China and the growing perception among US lawmakers of China’s military threat to the region.
Defense Ministry Spokesman, Colonel Tan Kefei also blasted the recent virtual meeting between US Pacific Fleet and Air Forces and the PLA Navy and Air Force under the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement which took place between December 14 and 16.
Col. Tan said the root cause of maritime and aviation safety issues between the US and China is entirely the fault of the United States. Tan accused US warships and warplanes of “provocative measures” for conducting “extremely targeted exercises” that amount to an infringement of Chinese sea and airspace.
To solve these safety issues, Tan demanded that the United States cease “these hostile naval and air force operations.”
He also blasted President Joe Biden for last week signing the $768 billion National Defense Authorization Act which includes beefing up US forces in the Pacific. The NDAA also requires the Pentagon to produce a series of reports on China’s military and diplomatic strategies throughout the world. “China” is cited over 130 times in the 2022 NDAA.
Saying the NDAA is “full of Cold War mentality and ideological bias,” Tan argued it exaggerates the “China threat theory” and includes “groundless accusations” about Beijing’s policies toward Taiwan and Xinjiang.
Xinjiang is the province in China where the US claims Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities are held in concentration camps where they are subjected to torture, forced sterilization, and genocide.
Col. Tan argued that by signing the NDAA into law, Biden is undermining the “mutual trust between China and the US,” poisoning relations between the two countries, and bringing both state and military relations to a “dangerous place.”
In December, Ely Ratner, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Pentagon was working to restore military-to-military communications between the US and China, focusing on “crisis communications and crisis management.”
