In the first speech of his unprecedented third term as president of China, Xi Jinping vowed to strengthen national security and transform the military into a ‘great wall of steel’.
Speaking at a sitting of parliament on Monday, Xi underlined the need to modernise the Chinese military and bolster national defence.
‘(We must) build the People’s Liberation Army into a great wall of steel that effectively safeguards national sovereignty, security, and development interests’, Xi told delegates of the National People’s Congress.
Xi outlined other ongoing efforts to ensure the ‘great rejuvenation’ of the Chinese nation, which, according to Xi, has ‘entered an irreversible historical process’. Among them is a plan to expand the economy by focusing on science and technology, as well as improving the ‘social governance system’.
The ‘essence’ of Chinese rejuvenation, however, Xi told delegates, was ‘national unification’, specifically the unification of Taiwan with mainland China, notwithstanding ‘external interference’ by ‘bullying foreign powers’.
‘We must actively promote peaceful development of cross-strait relations, firmly oppose interference of external forces and Taiwan’s separatist activities, and resolutely advance the process of national reunification,’ Xi said, to what CNN describes as a ‘loud burst of applause’.
Xi’s emphasis on opposing the influence of foreign powers over Chinese affairs was echoed by Qin Gang, the new foreign minister, who warned that if the US does not ‘hit the brakes’, relations between the two countries will descend into ‘conflict and confrontation’.