China's development of submarines aims to maintain the country's sovereignty and maritime interests rather than to seek for hegemony, Liang Fang, a military expert said in an interview with People's Daily Online.

Liang said in the interview that the U.S. annual report to Congress exaggerate quantity of Chinese military weaponry and its performance in order to delude China's surrounding countries and other countries to keep an eye on China.

Liang's words came after the U.S. attempted to play up Chinese military threat and made comments on Chinese development of weaponry and equipment in its annual report.

"China follows a national defense policy that is defensive in nature," China's Defense Ministry spokesperson Yang Yujun said on Saturday when the report was released. Yang said that the country's military build-up and reforms are aimed at maintaining sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and guaranteeing China's peaceful development.

The U.S. has released 16 annual reports on China's military since 2000. Liang said that this movement has hindered the bilateral ties between the two countries and balance and stability in Asia-Pacific area.

The report also claimed that China has highly modernized submarine troops which own five nuclear-powered attack submarines, four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines and 53 electricity-powered attack submarines.

Liang said that the U.S. has 72 in-service nuclear submarines, among which 14 are nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, 54 are nuclear-powered attack submarines and 4 nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines. The quantity and quality of Chinese submarines are inferior to that of America.