China: US military activity increasing under Biden administration

China’s defense ministry on Thursday accused the U.S. of increasing military action specifically targeting Beijing, including surveillance activity and other movements through Chinese-claimed airspace and waters.

The Associated Press reported that a spokesperson for China’s defense forces accused the Biden administration of ramping up aerial activities in Chinese-claimed airspace by 40 percent, while naval activity had increased by 20 percent in Chinese-claimed waters.

“The U.S. frequently dispatches ships and planes to operate in seas and airspace near China, promoting regional militarization and threatening regional peace and stability,” Wu Qian told reporters on Thursday.

China’s foreign ministry also reportedly accused the U.S. of forcing other countries to follow rules the U.S. itself does not follow.

“The U.S. always demands that others follow the rules while violating the rules themselves,” Wang Wenbin said at a daily press conference, according to the AP.

“It is in nature out of Cold War thinking and ideological bias, and is a sign of lack of self-confidence,” Wang continued. “We hope the U.S. can discard the mentality of sour grapes towards China.”

The accusation by China’s military comes as the Biden administration and Beijing have seen little change to the tensions that arose between the U.S. and China over the course of the Trump administration, throughout which Washington and Beijing butted heads while trying to reach an agreement to address numerous trade issues while trading back-and-forth sanction measures aimed at crippling key parts of their respective economies.

The Biden administration has remained firm in vowing to confront China on numerous issues including the sovereignty of Taiwan, over which Beijing declares it has jurisdiction but the U.S. has vowed to protect from Chinese takeover.