BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhuanet) -- The Pentagon's annual report on Chinese military power has reflected its "China threat paranoia" about China's peaceful development, said a commentary carried by China's leading newspaper People's Daily on Friday.

    The Pentagon's report asserts China's military power could posea threat to the region, but the fact is that China is a constructive force in the region, said the commentary.

    For instance, on Wednesday, one day after the Pentagon released the report, China, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand began implementing tariff cuts to each other, a significant move toward regional peace and prosperity.

    At the fifth summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on July 5 in Astana, Kazakhstan, four Central Asian countries -- Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan -- agreed to strengthen cooperation with China in cracking down on terrorism and in energy exploitation.

    The fourth round of six-party talks on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula will start in Beijing next Tuesday -- another achievement China has scored in its mediation efforts toward peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

    Therefore, whether China is a so-called "threat" or a constructive force in the Asia-Pacific, countries in the region will give their own verdict, said the commentary.

    The commentary also blasted the Pentagon's groundlessly assessment on China's military spending.

    The report asserts that the defense sector in China could receive up to 90 US billion dollars in 2005, but the figure was even dismissed by the US strategic think tank Rand Corporation as "exaggeration," said the commentary.

    In fact, China's national defense spending amounted only to 211.7 billion yuan (approximately 25.5 billion dollars) in 2004.

    The per capita defense expenditure of the United States was even 77 times that of China, said the commentary. How could China, with such a low level of military spending, pose a threat to the United States? it asked.

    By deliberately exaggerating the military imbalance across the Taiwan Straits, the Pentagon's report is designed to strengthen its case for Taiwan buying more advanced US weapons, said the commentary.

    The Pentagon also wants, by selling the China threat theory, to pressure the European Union (EU) not to lift its arms embargo against China and to dissuade Israel from selling weapons to China, it added. Enditem