China was strongly resentful of and firmly opposed to a U.S. annual report on its military power, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao on Wednesday.

The 2006 China Military Power Report, issued by the U.S. Defense Ministry recently, has continued to spread "China's threat" and severely violated the principles governing international relations, said Liu when responding to press.

He said the report, still with the "Cold War" mentality, has exaggerated China's military power and military expenditure with ulterior motives and wantonly interfere in China's internal affairs.

"China is a peace-loving nation and has insisted on a way of peaceful development, with a national defense policy that is defensive in nature. The international community has generally acknowledged that China is an important force of promoting peace in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large," said Liu.

He said it is natural for China, a sovereign state, to develop its national defense construction which is aimed at defending national security and safeguarding territorial integrity.

"Taiwan is an inseparable part of China's territories. The Chinese government sticks to the policy of 'peaceful reunification and one country, two systems'," said Liu.

He said the Chinese government will exert its utmost effort and show all sincerity to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification of the motherland. However, Liu said, China will never tolerate "Taiwan independence" and will never allow any one to separate Taiwan from China in any way.

Liu said China has urged the U.S. side to stick to its commitments of adhering to the one-China policy, abiding by the three communiques between China and the U.S. and opposing to "Taiwan independence", stop selling weapons to Taiwan and not to send any wrong signal to the splittist forces of "Taiwan independence."

Source: Xinhua