China has no intention to match US military power, a top Chinese general said on Thursday in Washington. Gen Chen Bingde said America’s armed forces remained far more advanced than China’s despite considerable progress by China in recent years. But Gen Chen warned that further US arms sales to Taiwan could damage US-China military relations.
China regards Taiwan a renegade province that must be reunited. “China never intends to challenge the US,” Gen Chen, chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army, said at the National Defense University during his week-long visit to the US. “Although China’s defence and military development has come a long way in recent years, a gaping gap between you and us remains,” he said warning that US-Chinese relations would suffer if Washington again sold weapons to Taiwan.
“As to how bad the impact will be, it will depend on the nature of the weapons sold to Taiwan,” he said. Last year, Beijing cut off most military-to-military contacts with the US after Washington announced the sale of more than $6 billion in arms to Taipei.