Washington urged to stop falsely picturing Beijing as threat

China strongly criticized on Wednesday a United States report identifying China as a primary military and cyber threat, urging Washington to stop hyping up such a narrative and stop viewing China as a mirror image of the hegemonic U.S.

In addition to labeling China as a top threat to the U.S., the Annual Threat Assessment, published on Tuesday by the U.S. intelligence community, said that the country is making "steady but uneven" progress on capabilities it could use to "capture Taiwan".

Addressing a regular news conference on Wednesday in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said that Washington has been releasing such irresponsible and biased reports year after year to peddle the false "China threat" narrative and stoke competition between major countries, so that there could be an excuse to suppress Beijing and perpetuate U.S. supremacy.

China's development has a long historic thread and is robust and self-driven, Guo said, noting that the country's goal is to strive to ensure that the Chinese people can lead a better life and that China can contribute more to the world.

"We have no intention to surpass or supplant anyone," he said.

The Taiwan question is entirely China's internal affair, Guo emphasized. Nothing will deter China from rejecting "Taiwan independence" separatism and defending its national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the spokesman said, adding that no one should underestimate or miscalculate China's resolve on the matter.

The saying goes, "To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail", he said, urging the U.S. to stop viewing its ties with China from the outdated Cold War perspective, stop containing China in the name of "strategic competition", and stop aiding or abetting "Taiwan independence" separatist forces in any form.

The U.S. should stop falsely picturing China as a threat and work with China for a steady, sound and sustainable China-U.S. relationship, he added.