Mubasher TV
Contact Us Advertising   العربية

Chinese army ‘likely training’ for attacking US targets - Pentagon

Chinese army ‘likely training’ for attacking US targets - Pentagon

Mubasher: At the time of heightened trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, bomber operations were being extended in recent years by Chinese military which seemed to be “training for strikes” against the US and its allies.

“Over the last three years, the PLA [Chinese People’s Liberation Army] has rapidly expanded its overwater bomber operating areas, gaining experience in critical maritime regions and likely training for strikes against US and allied targets,” the US Defense Department’s annual report said on Thursday.

The assessment, which was included in an annual report by the Pentagon that highlighted China’s attempts to raise its global influence, with defence expenditure exceeding $190 billion last year, as per estimated by the US department.

In addition, the PLA also had undertaken flights “beyond a demonstration of improved capabilities,” the report added, raising questions regarding the message that Beijing intended to convey.

Although the world’s second largest economy was set to show a growth slowdown, China’s official defence budget was projected to reach over $240 billion by 2028, according to the Pentagon report.

These estimates came after Chinese air force placed bombers on islands and reefs in the South China Sea within the frame work of a training exercise in the disputed region, while the US Defense Department included China as well as Russia within its national defence strategy in January.

The Pentagon also withdrew in May an invitation to China to participate in a multinational naval exercise, while Washington and Beijing are still keeping a military-to-military relationship aimed at containing tension.

In addition, “the PLA continues to strengthen [rapidly] its military space capabilities despite its public stance against the militarization of space,” the report stated.

In that respect, US President Donald Trump announced this month a plan to start a new “Space Force” as the sixth branch of the military by 2020, citing among other things, that US rivals like China seem to grow ready to strike the US space capabilities.

The Pentagon report came as the world’s largest two economies plan to hold trade discussions, hoping to settle an escalating tit-for-tat tariff dispute that raises the threat of an all-out trade war.