Defense Ministry: China has No Overseas Bases

China's defense ministry said Thursday that the country has no military bases overseas, despite speculation that its armed forces seek to eventually establish facilities abroad.

"Currently, China has constructed no military base overseas," ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng told reporters at a monthly briefing.

Geng was responding to a question about China's policy toward overseas bases and under what condition the country might station ships or troops abroad.

China has been accused of seeking to develop a series of facilities around the Indian Ocean in a "string of pearls" strategy to counter the rise of its Asian rival India and secure its own economic interests.

In January last year, Pakistan's cabinet approved the transfer of Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea from Singapore's PSA International to the state-owned China Overseas Port Holdings Limited.

China's acquisition of the strategic facility has been seen as part of a drive to secure energy and maritime routes and potentially provide a naval base in the Arabian Sea.

Sri Lanka opened a new $450 million deep-sea port in 2012 at Hambantota on its southern coast, built with Chinese loans and construction expertise and giving Beijing a vital foothold on the world's busiest international shipping lane.

A $500 million Chinese-built port also opened in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo last year. 

The "string of pearls" phrase was coined in a 2004 report for the Pentagon, which has a network of naval bases around the world.

China counters that its rise to become the world's second-largest economy is peaceful and that it poses no threat to the interests of other countries or regions.

Though China's defense spending is growing by double digits and it has acquired its first aircraft carrier, the country remains far behind the United States in military capacity and reach.