Chinese media responds to US Navy white paper: The US is chasing itself, there is no arms race

"No country is willing to have an arms race with Washington. The US is chasing itself instead," a Chinese state-run newspaper said in reaction to American navy chief's calls for further expansion of their naval fleet to compete with China and Russia.

US Naval chief Admiral John Richardson made the calls while releasing a white paper titled "The Future Navy" on Thursday (17 May).

Quoting Richardson, who said: "We're going to have to build ships, and we're going to have to look at extending the life of ships", the newspaper wrote that US military expenditure is already higher than "the next eight countries combined" yet it aims to build more ships.

"The US Navy is the world's first in aggregate tonnage, quality and warfare capability, and Washington spends more on its military than the next eight countries combined. However, Washington is always alert to competition from its so-called rivals - Beijing and Moscow," Global Times wrote in an editorial published on Friday 19 May.

The article accused "some so-called strategic elites" of misleading the American society, who believe the government is right in spending more on procuring more advanced military equipment. Acknowledging the US military might, the paper wrote that although achieving absolute security is highly unlikely, the US is "the most strategically secure country in the world".

"Admittedly, China and Russia have seen growing military strength, but their capability to build aircraft carriers still lags far behind the US," the paper noted.

"Washington's military strength has already far surpassed that of other countries. It is the willingness to harmoniously co-exist with other civilizations that Washington lacks.

"Washington will drag itself down if it insists that military power is a solution for everything. The US is free to build as many warships as it wants, but an absolute dominance of the world will never reappear," the paper added.