People’s Daily published an article which stated that the Pentagon Report issued on May 14 is a continuation of the old story of the “China Military Threat” and is full of the U.S.’s own imagination. The article claimed that the theory quoted in the report, that China plans to increase the number of its submarines to 69 to 78, was an exaggeration. It said that “the Pentagon Report overstated the number of weapons and their capability. It was meant to trick China’s neighboring countries so that they would raise their guard against China.”
Source: People’s Daily, May 17, 2016
http://military.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0517/c1011-28355148.html