China 'likely' training pilots to target US, Pentagon report says

"Over the last three years, the PLA has rapidly expanded its overwater bomber operating areas, gaining experience in critical maritime regions and likely training for strikes against US and allied targets," the report says, using the acronym for the People's Liberation Army, the official name of the Chinese military.

The report, which is mandated by Congress, details Chinese military developments over the previous year.

It also says that China is pursuing a nuclear capability on its long-range bombers, saying the Chinese air force "has been re-assigned a nuclear mission."

"The deployment and integration of nuclear capable bombers would, for the first time, provide China with a nuclear 'triad' of delivery systems dispersed across land, sea, and air," the report said.

The report says that in addition to the bombers it already operates, "China is developing a stealthy, long-range strategic bomber with a nuclear delivery capability that could be operational within the next 10 years."

It says China is deploying "increasingly advance military capabilities intended to coerce Taiwan" in a bid to prevent self-governing Taiwan from declaring independence

The document notes that China has established its first overseas base in Djibouti and that it "will seek to establish additional military bases in countries with which it has a longstanding friendly relationship and similar strategic interests, such as Pakistan, and in which there is a precedent for hosting foreign militaries"

China also continues to develop counterspace capabilities, "including kinetic-kill missiles,ground-based lasers and orbiting space robots," the report said. It adds that Beijing is also working "to expand space surveillance capabilities that can monitor objects across the globe and in space and enable counterspace actions."