China on Thursday refuted the criticism of the United States characterizing its military budget as "absent greater transparency," saying such criticism showed "cold-war mentality."

"China is sincere in terms of its military expenditure and its efforts for increasing mutual trust on defense with other countries," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao, commenting on a U.S. annual report on China military power.

The report, issued by the U.S. Defense Ministry recently, continued to spread the "China threat" fallacy and severely violated the principles governing international relations.

"China, a large country with long borders, is facing the task of safeguarding national sovereignty and striving for reunification," said Liu. "Thus it is quite normal for China to properly increase its military expenditure."

On Wednesday, Liu said the report has exaggerated China's military power and military expenditure with ulterior motives and wantonly interfered in China's internal affairs.

Liu also refuted the allegation that China's development is now "at a crossroads", saying China will steadfastly pursue its only road of peaceful development.

On the Taiwan question, Liu urged the U.S. side to honor its commitments, adhere to the one-China policy, abide by the three communiques and oppose "Taiwan independence".

Source: Xinhua