BEIJING, March 3 (UPI) -- The Chinese military buildup is a growing concern in the West but a Chinese major general says his country has no intention of challenging the United States.
"China is the only permanent member of the U.N. Security Council that has not achieved territorial integrity," said People's Liberation Army Maj. Gen. Luo Yuan at the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body, the China Daily reported.
Luo was commenting on a recent book by PLA's Senior Col. Liu Mingfu, who has said China should build the world's strongest military. The 3 million strong PLA is the world's largest military force.
Terming Liu's call "just his ambition," Luo said, "We need to think more on how to preserve national integrity. We have no intention of challenging the (United States)."
The Chinese Daily said Liu's book "stands out for its boldness in a recent chorus of strong voices demanding a hard shove back against Washington" over the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan and President Barack Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama.
Another military official, Col. Dai Xu, was quoted as saying in his book that he is "very pessimistic about the future" as China is largely surrounded by hostile countries beholden to the United States and that China "cannot escape the calamity of war" which may come in the next 10 to 20 years.
The China Daily quoted CPPCC spokesman Zhao Qizheng as saying: "China's defense spending was just about 1.4 (percent) or 1.5 percent of the country's GDP in recent years. U.S. defense spending was more than 4 percent of its GDP, which is three times as big as China's."
Last September, a spokesman for China's Ministry of National Defense dismissed as "totally groundless and irresponsible" Washington's comments about military threats posed by China.
