Chinese military officials warned recently that the United States is constructing a ring of missile defenses to “encircle” China.

U.S. sales of Patriot anti-missile systems to Taiwan are part of the encirclement strategy, something Chinese military writings have warned is a covert anti-China strategy to prevent China’s emergence as a global power.

Air force Col. Dai Xu, a military strategist, stated that "China is in a crescent-shaped ring of encirclement. The ring begins in Japan, stretches through nations in the South China Sea to India, and ends in Afghanistan.

Washington's deployment of anti-missile systems around China's periphery forms a crescent-shaped encirclement.”

Another analyst, Tang Xiaosong, director of the Center of International Security and Strategy Studies with Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, asserted that the ring encircling China can be expanded in other directions. Tang said the U.S. hopes to sell India and other Southeast Asian countries the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-3 missile defense system.

China is especially worried about U.S.-India missile defense cooperation, describing the development as profoundly affecting China’s security.

Until recently, China has opposed all forms of missile defenses by the United States because of what U.S. experts say is the ability to neutralize China’s heavy investment in both ballistic and cruise missiles.

China has built hundreds of new short-, medium- and long-range missiles in recent years and is expected to speed up deployments to counter U.S. long-range and regional missile defenses.