The Ministry of National Defense Friday condemned a report released by the Pentagon as exaggerating the China military threat, with analysts calling for the US to drop its Cold War mentality and increase mutual trust.

"For years the US has been issuing these so-called 'Military and Security Development in China Reports,' making irresponsible criticisms of China's regular defense and military construction, exaggerating the 'China military threat,' which is extremely wrong," the defense ministry's press bureau said in a statement.

"We resolutely oppose such behavior. As for the detailed contents of the 2014 report, we are currently assessing it and will respond in accordance with the situation."

The Pentagon on Thursday released an annual report on the Chinese military, claiming China continues to modernize and improve its military capabilities and is preparing for contingencies in the East China Sea and the South China Sea.

The report claimed China's actual military spending exceeded $145 billion last year, 21 percent above the official $119.5 billion figure China announced.

"Exaggerating China's military spending is an old trick used by the US. It serves two obvious purposes. One is to support its theory of a China military threat and intimidate other countries in the region into allowing the US to expand its military existence in the western Pacific area," Xu Guangyu, a senior research fellow at the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, told the Global Times.

"A threatening China will also serve to intimidate the US Congress and the US public to help increase the US military budget," Xu said.

The Pentagon began to release annual reports on China's military in 2000.

This year's report has showed new characteristics such as more dedicated content on the rise of the Chinese navy and an emphasis on the Chinese military's "anti-access" and "area-denial" capabilities.

The 96-page report alleges that in a move to deter third party - especially the US - intervention in Asia, China improved advanced intermediate- and medium-range conventional ballistic missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles, counter-space weapons and cyber offensive capabilities.

"China's military investments provide it with a growing ability to project power at increasingly longer ranges," the report says.

"The so-called 'anti-access' and 'area-denial' policies are not strategies of the Chinese military. It is an idea forced upon us based on Cold War mentality," Zhang Junshe, a military expert from an academic institute affiliated with the Chinese navy, told the Global Times.

Zhang pointed out that a lot of the data, such as the number of naval vessels, is exaggerated.

"The numbers are clearly obtained from the Internet or certain media, which have little credibility," Zhang said.

Analysts are concerned about the confrontational mentality implied in the Pentagon's reports.

"It is a sign that China and the US, especially from the military aspect, still lack mutual trust," Xu said.

US, with a budget of more than $600 billion, remained the world's largest defense spender in 2013.