China on Thursday issued a white paper [full text] on national defense, aiming to enhance its military transparency and boost the world's trust in its commitment to peaceful development.

The document, the seventh of its kind the Chinese government has issued since 1998, says China will never seek hegemony, nor will it adopt the approach of military expansion now or in the future, no matter how its economy develops.

It gives an overall picture of China's national defense ranging from the security environment, national defense policy, to defense expenditure and arms control.

On security environment, the white paper says the world remains peaceful and stable at large, but the international security situation has become more complex and military competition remains fierce.

China is meanwhile confronted by more diverse and complex security challenges, it says.

China pursues a national defense policy which is defensive in nature, the white paper says. Such a pursuit is determined by China's development path, its fundamental aims, its foreign policy, and its historical and cultural traditions.

The goals and tasks of China's national defense in the new era are defined as safeguarding national sovereignty, security and interests of national development; maintaining social harmony and stability; accelerating the modernization of national defense and the armed forces; maintaining world peace and stability.

The white paper reviewed the modernization of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), saying it has grown from a single service into a strong military force featuring a range of services and arms, and is now beginning to make progress towards informationization.

The PLA laid down a three-step development strategy and adopted a step-change approach which takes mechanization as the foundation and informationization as the focus.