At a time when relations with West are going through extremely tense times, Xi Jinping has promised to strengthen the security of China and turn the army into a “great wall of steel” to safeguard the national sovereignty and development interests of his country. The forceful message was delivered in a speech delivered on Monday at the close of the annual session of the People’s Assembly in the capital, in which Xi secured an unprecedented third term as president and named a close ally as his number two.
At the end of the annual parliamentary session and before an audience of nearly 3,000 delegates who unanimously elected him president, Xi praised the role of the Chinese Communist Party in the recent history of the Asian giant, after the humiliation suffered by “harassment by foreign powers ” which had reduced the nation to a “semi-colonial” and “semi-feudal” state. In a talk, with strong nationalist overtones, he affirmed that “After a century of struggle, we have swept away the humiliation and the Chinese people have become masters of their own destiny.”
In a passage dedicated to Taiwan, Xi renewed his commitment to “resolve the issue” and proceed with the “firm reunification” of the island with China, something that constitutes a “common aspiration” of all his people. “We must resolutely oppose the interference of external forces and pro-independence activities and continue the process of reunifying the motherland,” he asserted. Still, he refrained from saying, as he has on other occasions, that he would not rule out the use of military force if other efforts fail.
The tensions around taiwan have increased recently. The communist leaders consider the island democratic republic as part of their country. But the island has long been considered independent. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, international concern has grown over the possibility of China taking similar action against it. In that case, the United States would also be drawn into the conflict by being compromised by Taipei’s defensive capabilities.
No direct mention was made of tensions with the United States or the West. However, the recent appointment as defense minister of a general, Li Shangfu, who was hit by the US sanctions in 2018 for buying weapons from Russia. Already in recent days, Xi has stressed the importance of strengthening the unity of the armed forces, and again during the Assembly last week he singled out Washington and the West, in stronger terms than ever.
The most powerful fragment of his harangue was the one dedicated to the Army, in which he linked security to China’s development. “It is necessary to transform the Armed Forces into a Great Wall of Steel that effectively safeguards national sovereignty, security and development interests,” said the Chinese president. In a context of growing tensions with the White House, the emerging power’s military budget will increase by 7.2%, more than global spending.
China has by far the largest army in the worldwith 2.8 million soldiers, sailors and airmen, twice the number of Americans. The United States is number two and other countries with more than a million active duty soldiers are China’s neighbors: Russia, India and North Korea. Yet the Chinese military was a million strong in the 1980s, before communist leaders recognized that its size actually worked against their goal of developing a modern force.
Finally, Xi once again reiterated the importance of his country’s scientific and technological autonomy, at a difficult time on the economic front, a theme that the new prime minister, Li Qiang, developed more specifically. The prospects, in terms of world economic recovery, “are not optimistic”, said the new prime minister in his debut and added that the goal of growth of around 5% by 2023 “is not an easy task” although he said he had “full confidence” in the country’s capabilities.
Regarding the tense relations with the United States, the new prime minister was more conciliatory and advocated expanding cooperation. The two largest economies are closely linked and both benefit from it. He only vaguely referred to Xi’s accusation of the US willingness to impede his country’s rise in the world through containment and isolation: “Encirclement and oppression do no one any good.”
Beijing has recently taken a series of steps to cooperate with the United States on security: signing the Chemical Weapons Convention and the nuclear test ban treaty, ending its aid to Pakistan’s atomic facilities, pledging to cut ballistic missile transfers to the latter, as well as nuclear and anti-ship cruise missile trade with Iran, and quietly containing the North Koreans. Also, C.China suffers from enormous socio-economic problems, the solution to which requires maintaining good relations with the world’s major economic powers, and with Washington in particular.
In these uncertain times for the world’s second largest economy, the Chinese president in his final campaign speech called for maintaining stability. He advocated boosting innovation and “scientific and technological self-sufficiency” but did not address US sanctions on key technologies. “We must strive to effectively improve the quality of the economy and achieve adequate quantitative growth.”
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