China yesterday rejected a Pentagon report that plays up the "China military threat," saying it poses no threat to the world.

"We express firm opposition to the US defence review and have lodged a serious objection with the US," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said at a regular news briefing.

The US Quadrennial Defence Review released last week by the Department of Defence said China had the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States.

"The report interferes with China's internal affairs by groundlessly blaming the nation's normal national defence build-up," Kong said. "It also whips up fears of a 'Chinese military threat' and misleads public opinion."

China is taking a straight path towards peaceful development and is adopting a national defence policy of a defensive nature.

"China has never threatened any country in the past, and will never do so in the future," he said. Kong urged the US to correct its viewpoints and actions and view China's peaceful development with an objective and positive attitude.

Pentagon paper hurts ties - expert

A Chinese military expert says the Pentagon document reflects US hostility and high measure of vigilance against China's development.

A researcher at the Strategic Research Department of China's Academy of Military Sciences, Wang Xinjun, contends that the U.S. military document reveals the administration's true military ambitions, and would jeopardize healthy bilateral relations with China.

Wang Xinjun says the playing up of China's military power aims to contain China's military development as well as seek to strengthen U.S. forces in the Asia Pacific area, in order to offset China's influence in the region.

The expert adds that the document provides "evidence" for further strengthening of the U.S.-Japan military alliance, which the U.S. favors to control Japan, contain China's development and disintegrate cooperation in East Asia.

The analyst believes the real intention lying behind the Pentagon document targets the impeding of China's reunification. Some American strategists feel that distancing Taiwan away from the Chinese central government is the most effective means to prevent or slow down China's rise.

With the U.S. long-range plan calling on China as its greatest future threat, Wang Xinjun notes it provides a basis for an increasing Department of Defense spending against the "so-called enemy".

Wang Xinjun says that the Chinese army has no such intention of confronting the American army and the new Pentagon document will do harm to China's peaceful development as well as the mutual trust and cooperation built by the two countries in regional and global affairs.