US Congress report warns American interests at risk in China's military rise

Basic American interests are at stake in the Asia-Pacific as the regional military balance tilts in China's favour, a US Congress report has warned.

In its annual report submitted to Congress on Thursday, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said China had made big gains in military development, driven by two decades of double-digit increases in its defence spending.

"As a result of China's comprehensive and rapid military modernisation, the regional balance of power between China, on the one hand, and the United States and its allies and associates on the other, is shifting in China's direction," it said.

But, in an apparent effort to defend China's military progress, defence minister Chang Wanquan told a regional security forum in Beijing that China needed to modernise its armed forces to adapt to a changing global security environment.

The commission's report said the Sino-US security relationship mostly deteriorated this year, with persistent territorial disputes between China and US treaty allies Japan and the Philippines.

Chinese military aircraft and ships also confronted US military aircraft and vessels "on several occasions since late last year", the report said.

Tao Wenzhao, a senior fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of American Studies, said that while China still lagged far behind the United States in many areas in the military, its pace of progress had outpaced that of the US in recent years and would continue to do so for the foreseeable future.