The Chinese military strongly deplores and firmly opposes the United States' latest National Defense Authorization Act for containing negative Taiwan-related content and grossly exaggerating the "China military threat theory", a defense spokesman said on Thursday.

China's Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian told a news conference in Beijing, in response to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 which was passed and signed into law this week, despite China's opposition.

"The US Act makes groundless statements about the so-called China military threat, grossly interferes in China's internal affairs, and severely harms China's national sovereignty, security and development interests," said Wu.

The US military expenditure tops the world and is larger than those of the next nine countries combined, accounting for 40 percent of the total global military expenditure, the spokesman said.

"On the one hand, the US is accelerating its military development, intensifying military deployment in the Asia-Pacific region, and strengthening bilateral military alliance; on the other hand, it is hyping up the so-called China military threat out of thin air," he said.

Such manipulations have intensified block confrontation and arms race, causing a severe impact on the current international security system and global governance structure , Wu said, urging the US to abandon the zero-sum game and cold war mentality, view China and China's military development in an objective and rational light, instead of being obsessed with the pursuit for hegemony.

The spokesman reiterated China's position on the Taiwan question, a purely China internal affair, which brooks no foreign interference.

"We firmly oppose any country to have official and military contact with Taiwan in any form," he said, criticizing the US for manipulating the Taiwan question in various forms, which is a "very dangerous gamble".