China accuses US admiral of 'hyping up' threat of Taiwan invasion

China on Wednesday accused a top US commander of attempting to "hype up" the threat of an invasion of Taiwan to inflate Washington's defence spend.

The US' top military officer in Asia-Pacific, Admiral Philip Davidson, on Tuesday said China could invade Taiwan within the next six years.

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Taiwan split from China at the end of a civil war in 1949 and exists under the constant threat of invasion by the mainland. Chinese leaders view Taiwan as part of their territory and have vowed to one day take it back.

"Taiwan is clearly one of their ambitions before that. And I think the threat is manifest during this decade, in fact, in the next six years," Davidson told a US Senate committee.

Also read | China could invade Taiwan in next six years, top US commander warns

Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, to this end, told reporters in Beijing: "Some US people continue to use the Taiwan issue to hype up China's military threat."

"But in essence this is the US searching for a pretext to increase its military spending, expand its forces and interfere in regional affairs."

Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, but remains the island's most important unofficial ally and military backer.

The US continues to remain the island’s most important unofficial ally -- earlier, it was Donald Trump who embraced warmer ties with the island, and now it is new President Joe Biden whose State Department said in January that its commitment to the island was “rock-solid”. 

China also has made expansive territorial claims in the resource-rich South China Sea and even threatens the American island of Guam, underlined Davidson. 

"Guam is a target today," he warned, recalling that the Chinese military released a video simulating an attack on an island base strongly resembling US facilities in Diego Garcia and Guam.