[ad_1]
WASHINGTON DC, KOMPAS.com – The United States (US) estimates that China will have the world’s largest navy by more than double from now.
Launching Daily mail On Wednesday (02/9/2020), the headquarters of the US Department of Defense, the Pentagon, claimed that China’s military strength is currently equal to or even exceeds the United States in various areas of military modernization.
He also said that the Chinese military had made great progress in building ships, developing cruise and ballistic missiles, and integrated air defense systems.
Also read: Chinese military expansion: doubling 200 more warheads in 1 decade
The Pentagon report, which details China’s military capabilities, was rejected by China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.
Hua Chunying, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a news conference that the Pentagon’s claims were full of prejudice.
Chunying said the claims came as tensions between Beijing and Washington escalated over various issues, including Chinese military activity in the disputed South China Sea and autonomous Taiwan.
Also read: Taiwan: China’s military is getting stronger, but …
The Pentagon report says: “Over the next decade, China’s nuclear warhead arsenal is projected to at least double as China expands and modernizes its nuclear power.”
Currently, China’s arsenal of nuclear warheads is estimated to be less than 200.
“China’s nuclear power will expand significantly over the next decade as the number of land, sea and air nuclear power supply platforms modernizes, diversifies and increases,” the report continued.
Also read: Targets China, USA and Australia in search of new military cooperation
The document also adds that China already has the largest navy in the world, with “a total combat force of around 350 ships and submarines, including more than 130 major surface combatants.”
“By comparison, the United States Navy’s combat strength is about 293 ships at the beginning of 2020,” he said.
Chad Sbragia, China’s deputy deputy defense minister, said the communist government “has become increasingly confident that it will achieve its goal” of having a “world-class army by 2049.”
Also read: Suspected of being a spy recruiting spot, the Chinese Cultural Center in the US is closed at the end of the year
China is also exploring potential bases from Myanmar to Africa and South America to test its reach in distant marine areas, the US official said at the American Enterprise Institute forum on Tuesday.
Relations between the United States and China have been at their lowest level in decades amid disputes over various issues, including trade, technology, Taiwan and the South China Sea.
Last week, China launched 2 missiles into the South China Sea, a rare move that experts see as warming and sends a clear warning to the United States.
Also read: Sick from China, Taiwan will redesign its passport
China was furious a day after Beijing thought Washington was sending a US Air Force U-2 spy plane into a no-fly zone, imposed during live-fire military exercises in northern China.
China also conducts naval exercises in the South China Sea, which are contested by 5 national governments.
China opposes all US military activity in and on strategic waterways, especially “freedom of navigation operations,” in which US Navy ships sail near Chinese-controlled islands.
