Yang Yi, Director of the Institute of Strategic Studies affiliated with the National Defense University of China, comments in an article carried in the People's Daily Overseas Edition, saying that while China adopts a military strategy that is defensive in nature, that doesn't mean the country cannot develop its military capability by taking a more proactive approach. Excerpts follow:

Recently, the unveiling of China's domestically produced Jian-10 fighter has reportedly touched off a new round of cries about "China's military threat" overseas. Some people say that the Jian-10 outstrips the United States' third-generation fighters in terms of combat performance, whereas others note it will inevitably affect the balance of the air operational capability in East Asia, if the Chinese military forces are equipped with such advanced warcraft.

Taking an overall view of the accelerated revolution in military affairs, mechanization-based operations are giving way to information technology-based ones. Leading global powers are intensifying the readjustment of their security and military strategies, developing new military technologies and weaponry, upgrading military theories and accelerating the transfer of their armed forces. Military advantages of developed countries are expanding.

At present, China has the biggest regular army globally in terms of size. Owing to insufficient input over the past decades, its disparity with developed nations in the military sphere continues to widen instead of being narrowed. The Chinese army has not yet been mechanized and is still far from its objective of turning itself into one based on information technology.

China currently needs a mighty army in order to cope with the threat it faces in state security, and particularly to safeguard its unity and territorial integrity. In recent years, it has steadily increased the input in national defense and army building on the basis of increased national economic strength and has pressed ahead the military revolution with Chinese characteristics. The country has selectively imported a few advanced aircraft and warships. There have also been breakthroughs or marked upgrading in some weaponry and equipment development, including the development of the third-generation fighter Jian-10. The upgrading of a single weaponry platform, however, cannot represent the overall improvement of the combat effectiveness of the entire weaponry system.

Many military experts from Western nations have acknowledged that the weaponry of the Chinese army is at least 20 years behind that of the United States and other Western nations on the whole.

The United States and other Western nations, which are superior to China militarily, try hard to oppose the Europe Union in lifting its arms embargo against China and work to prevent countries such as Israel, Poland and Ukraine from selling military equipment to China, while peddling "China's military threat" in an attempt to keep China in the "dock." Their strategic intention is to "demonize" China's road of peaceful development by means of propagating "China's military threat" and carrying out a "strategic encirclement" against its defense modernization and to launch "preemptive attacks" against the country tactically by manipulating international opinion. Taking "China's military threat" as an "inhibition," and through negative reports to smear and contain China, they attempt to place China in a "security predicament" as it strives to defend its state security and development interests.

By keeping to its military strategy defensive in nature, China does not mean to limit its offensive military capability. Military capability should have both offensive and defensive components. China's development of such capability is absolutely not for the purpose of external expansion, and will never be used to invade and bully other countries. China's military might is to be used only for counterattacks when its national interests are infringed upon. Its military strategy of active defense is in compliance with the "prudent or discreet warfare" and "courtesy warfare" advocated by Laozi, a noted Chinese philosopher and military strategist dating back 2,500 years and founder of the Taoism philosophy. The military strategy of active defense also complements China's adherence to the road of peaceful development. In this sense, China's powerful military forces are not only a symbol of prowess but also one of peace and justice.