US fans the flames of turmoil and disaster wherever it goes: China Daily editorial

No need to beat around the bush. One thing should be clear right from the start — It is the United States that is the world's No 1 warmonger.

In the nearly 250 years since its founding, the US has been free of war for only 16 years. Washington should look into a mirror and do some serious soul-searching instead of casting aspersions on others.

But of course it won't. It will continue to do what it always does to support and justify its aggression; it will create threats where none exist. Just as the Pentagon has done in its latest report on China's military development.

In an open show of displeasure and indignation, China's Defense Ministry fired a barrage of criticism at the report and its intent, slamming it for fallacies and gross distortions of China's national defense policy and military strategy.

The US is a troublemaker, plain and simple. It is not, as it purports to be, a contributor to peace and stability. Instead, it is constantly stoking conflicts here, there and everywhere to maintain its global hegemony and pan for the gold of strategic gains.

Even a cursory glance at the report, titled 2022 Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China, reveals its obvious ill intent to impose a false perception on China's legitimate and normal military and security development.

Most worryingly, the report continues to push Washington's narrative that countries with which it is at odds present a nuclear threat.

Perhaps it should also be made clear that it is the US that poses the real nuclear threat. Not only does it have the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, but the US continues to upgrade its "nuclear triad", vigorously seeks to forward-deploy non-strategic nuclear weapons and is guilty of nuclear proliferation through the AUKUS trilateral security partnership it has formed with Australia and the United Kingdom.

Most alarming of all, as highlighted by its most recent nuclear posture report and repeated talk of nuclear risks, it is persistently trying to lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons in the world.

It also probably bears repeating that China firmly pursues a nuclear strategy of self-defense, maintains its nuclear capabilities at the minimum level required for national security and adheres to a policy of no first use. Its military development, as has repeatedly been reaffirmed, aims to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests.

History shows that since it became the global hegemon, the US has been the biggest troublemaker and destroyer of world peace and stability. That is unlikely to change any time soon, as the Pentagon's report shows how deeply ingrained the Cold War mindset is in Washington.

It is to be hoped that the US' continual hyping up of a China threat is merely it badmouthing the country rather than it preparing the ground for a conflict similar to the one it has engineered in Europe. That is a really scary notion given how disastrous it would be for everyone.