From The Financial Times:

China has reacted angrily to the US defence department’s report to Congress on Chinese military power, condemning the Pentagon for “unreasonably” and “rudely” attacking Beijing’s modernisation of its armed forces.

Beijing protests too much. The US document – neither as hawkish as Pentagon hardliners nor as accommodating as State department doves would like – is measured and clearly written. It does not reach alarmist conclusions but summarises what is known about Chinese strategy and the People’s Liberation Army and sets out a range of plausible scenarios. The report talks of a possible future threat to Asia but also says China’s ability to project its power is currently limited and declares that the US would welcome the rise of a peaceful and prosperous China.

Yet there is a grain of truth in the Chinese complaint. The US establishment as a whole – after all, it is Congress that commissions these public annual assessments, not the Pentagon that wants to hand them out – seems to assume that there is something inherently abnormal and disturbing about China’s attempts to modernise its old-fashioned military forces.