China’s Xi Jinping vows to build military ‘Great Wall of Steel’ in first speech of new presidency

CNN
—

Chinese leader Xi Jinping vowed on Monday in his first speech of his unprecedented third term as president to strengthen national security and build the military into a Great Wall of Steel.

At the closing ceremony of China’s rubber-stamp annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, Xi stressed the need to comprehensively modernize national defense and the military.

(We must) build the People’s Liberation Army into a Great Wall of Steel that effectively safeguards the country’s sovereignty, security and development interests, Xi told the nearly 3,000 National People’s Congress (NPC) deputies.

Xi, 69 what unanimously approved The NPC’s tenure as China’s president marked another five years in a well-orchestrated and ceremonial vote on Friday, making him the longest running communist head of state since China’s founding in 1949.

At the start of Monday’s speech, Xi thanked the delegates for his reappointment.

This is my third term in the noble office of President. He said that the trust of the people is the biggest driving force for me to move forward, and it is also a heavy responsibility on my shoulders.

Like many of his previous speeches, Xi used a nationalistic tone, laying out China’s suffering from foreign bullying in this day and age, and pointing to how the Communist Party led the country to wash away its national humiliation.

The Chinese people have become the masters of their own destiny. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process.

According to Xi Jinping, the essence of rejuvenation is the unification of the country, that is, the unification of Taiwan and mainland China.

The Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan’s self-governing democracy as part of its territory, although it has never controlled it, and has refused to rule out the use of force.

Under Xi Jinping, Beijing has stepped up economic, diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan’s democracy. Beijing has not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, raising concerns that Xi could take similar action in the coming years.

We must actively promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, resolutely oppose interference by external forces and Taiwan’s separatist activities, and resolutely advance the process of reunification of the motherland, Xi Jinping said to warm applause at the Great Hall of the People.

Xi also called on China to better coordinate development and security.

Security is the foundation of development, and stability is the prerequisite for prosperity.

During his first decade in power, Xi Jinping overhauled China’s military, making it a modern fighting force and building its navy into the largest in the world.

China’s annual military budget will increased by 7.2% Due to heightened geopolitical tensions and regional arms race.

He also consolidated his control over the military and civilian branches of the government, becoming China’s most confident and dominant leader in a generation.

The emphasis on building up security and military power comes as relations between China and the United States are at their lowest point in decades, with tensions soaring in everything from trade and technology to geopolitics, especially Taiwan’s future.

Last week, in unusually direct remarks, Xi Jinping accused the United States of leading Western countries to contain and suppress China, posing unprecedented severe challenges to China.

Xi Jinping’s new foreign minister, Qin Gang, has warned that if the United States does not hit the brakes, the two superpowers are bound to fall into conflict and confrontation.