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BEIJING (AP) - China's government reacted angrily Monday in its first public comments on a U.S. Defense Department report on communist state's military buildup, accusing the Pentagon of fanning baseless fears of a Chinese threat.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry suggested that the Pentagon's report exaggerated China's military capabilities to justify higher U.S. defense spending and lend encouragement to Beijing's political rival, Taiwan.
"The U.S. Defense Department in this report exaggerated China's military strength and spending out of ulterior motives and continued to spread the 'China threat theory,'" Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement on the agency's Web site.
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