Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said on Tuesday that China and the US are engaged in an arms race, in response to China's move to develop hypersonic weapons. What we would like to say is that this is only the US' opinion and that China has no intention of engaging in an arms race with the US, as it's against the interests of the Chinese people and will not be supported by them. All military research and development China has conducted are dedicated to defending against potential risks and promoting national security. We don't have the willingness to overwhelm the US' military capability in matters that don't involve China.

The UK's MI6 chief Richard Moore also said on Tuesday that China is the "single greatest priority" for his spy agency as China "increasingly favors bold and decisive action particularly on national security grounds." He said China is "an authoritarian state with different values" which was "exporting technology that enables a web of authoritarian control around the world." Moore also alleged that China's overconfidence has put Beijing at risk of "miscalculation."

As one of the furthest European country from China, the UK has gone from promoting a "golden age" of China-UK relations several years ago to seeing China as the biggest security issue today. Such a change is by no means unnatural and abnormal. Something hysterical must have significantly happened in the UK, just like the outbreak of COVID-19 under the mutation from Delta to Omicron variant.

There have always been forces in the US and the UK to sell the "China threat theory." But today, this kind of talk is closely tied to their strategy toward China, creating a more realistic and destructive force.

The "China threat theory" is cooked up on the basis of several false premises and judgments. As a rising power, China has been as moderate as possible on the global stage. And so far, it has not adopted gunboat diplomacy or forced any country to make particular choices with China's military power. However, the US, the UK, and other Western countries don't accept China's rise. Instead, they believe that a strong China will pursue hegemony as they have always been doing. Such an opinion leads to the deepening of biases against China.

Western countries, especially the US and the UK, have to abandon their stereotypical values of "Western centrism" and even "White supremacy." Instead, they should respect China's right to develop into a major power as a super-populous country. They also need to respect China's right to defend its legitimate interests and values. The West should not treat their overwhelming interests as cheese that cannot be touched or adjusted. It cannot try to live off its past gains in the era of globalization. It needs to be open to changes in the world as prosperity and decline never last. 

The central goal of China's national security is to defend the country's core interests and ensure that its right to develop is not oppressed or deprived. And world hegemony is the pursuit of neither the Chinese leadership nor the Chinese people. Therefore, China will never engage in an arms race against the US for global dominance or in subversive activities around the world. But we will resolutely continue building the capability to militarily defeat the US in the regions where China's core interests lie. We will do so to gather resources to weaken the US and its allies' operations to jeopardize China's interests. This is as simple and clear as it is.

The "China threat theory" has evolved from a normal and natural concern into an overwhelming view on China as well as on the 21st century in countries like the US and the UK. This is a profound betrayal of the West against the spirit to seek truth from facts, and an ideological disorder against China-related issues. The general strategic thinking of the US and the West will become more impulsive and radical if they cannot abandon the vicious spiral of the "China threat theory." 

To conclude, we want to say the following: If the US has too much money, it should engage in an arms race with itself. If the MI6 has employed too many hands, give each of them a magnifying glass to search for China's "evil infiltration" into the UK and the world. As for China, it will, as it always does, keep its own development pace, sticking to its goal of modernization. As a Chinese poem says: Amid monkeys' howl along the riverbanks, my skiff has traveled a thousand miles.