Thaindian News

Beijing, June 13 (IANS) China has downplayed some Western media reports about the country’s ever-increasing military strength and its “menacing potential”, saying there was nothing “big and evil” evolving in the country.

Western media reports said a “deadly killer jet” would be able to take on the most advanced military fighters of the world, while a monstrous ship was under construction and an army of cyber hackers were “ready to do all the havoc” on the internet, the China Daily reported.

“It turns out that the killer jet is just a stealth fighter yet to complete its test flight. By comparison, the US military has put their own stealth fighters, the F22s, into active service for many years,” it said.

“The behemoth ship is an aircraft carrier under construction, but it hardly makes a splash because not only traditional military powers like the US and Russia have aircraft carriers, but even lesser powers, such as Thailand and Argentina, have their own carriers as well.”

“As for cyber hackers, they could be a bunch of web-savvy young people anxious to show off their skills, who have nothing to do with the Chinese military,” it said.

The daily said Chinese political and military leaders have reiterated China’s unswerving commitment to “peaceful development”, it said.

“They do it so often that their remarks fall flat on some foreign ears, but the key message they try to get across has remained the same - China doesn’t want war, China needs peace,” it said.

China has more than 1.3 billion people to feed, needs to create 20 million jobs a year, and thus “has little choice but to make the most of a largely peaceful environment and seek business opportunities rather than make enemies with other countries”, it added.

Despite all the hype about China’s military strength, the defence spending has remained fairly low, compared to the world’s developed countries.

China spent $80 billion in 2010 on its military, roughly 1.4 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), while that of the major countries is around three to four percent, according to the Chinese government.

Western observers assume a much higher spending for China’s military, and put the figure as much as $150 billion. “However, even that wild guess pales when compared with the staggering US figure of $729 billion,” it said.