On the afternoon of April 16, Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, spokesperson of the Ministry of National Defense, released a message on recent military issues.

Reporter: It is reported that the US defense budget for fiscal year 2026 may reach $1 trillion for the first time, to "improve lethality and combat readiness." What is your comment on this?

Zhang Xiaogang: We have paid attention to relevant reports. The sky-high military spending of the United States once again exposed the US's superstitiousness of force and addiction to war. At present, the US government is already heavily in debt, but it has invested a lot of ill-gotten gains from other countries in the manufacturing of weapons and equipment. We hope that the US side will wake up from the myth of hegemony as soon as possible and truly realize that military militancy will not make the United States great again, but will only bring painful disasters to the United States and the people of the world.