China's military on Wednesday expressed strong discontent and firm opposition to US accusations about its growing military clout and transparency. "US accusations of China's military threat and lack of transparency were cliches, and the US is using double standards," China's state-run Xinhua news agency quoted spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense Geng Yansheng as saying in Beijing. Geng also blamed the US for "sending wrong signals in territorial disputes" in the Asia-Pacific region, hence stirring up trouble. He was commenting on a US annual report on China's military development and security, which was released last week. The US has spent several times more on its military than China has on its armed forces in recent years, strived to develop state-of-the-art weaponry, organized aggressive forces to engage in cyber attacks and sought to deploy a global network of its anti-missile system, Geng said. The spokesman also questioned US sincerity to build a new type of major-country relationship and new model of military-to-military relations. China plans to raise its defense budget by 12.2 percent to CNY 808.2 billion (USD 132 billion) in 2014, marking double-digit spending growth for the fourth straight year, Xinhua reported in March.
In 2013, the country spent CNY 720.197 billion on national defense, a 10.7-percent increase from the previous year. Double-digit growth in China's defense budget in recent years has caused concerns from some countries, such as the US and Japan, prompting them to demand Beijing to boost transparency in its military spending