Xi Jinping Says China’s Sleek, Modern Military Will Never Allow Threats to Its Sovereignty

Time - Speaking in Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Chinese President Xi Jinping called upon "capable, brave and virtuous" soldiers "with soul" to lead the modernization of the nation’s armed forces, while warning that China “will never allow any people, organization or political party to split any part of Chinese territory out of the country at any time.”

It was Xi’s latest move to assert his authority ahead of the 19th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress in the fall, a crucial five-yearly meeting when key leadership positions are chosen. It also marks what should be the mid-point of Xi’s ten-year leadership term, which has been characterized by an ideological tightening and a crackdown on free speech.

Xi's 50-minute address on Tuesday included several calls for the 2 million-strong armed forces to rally around the Party. “Our army will remain the army of the party and the people,” Xi said. “The army should increase its political awareness … and carry forwards and implement the Party’s absolute leadership."

Xi was once again dressed in his familiar immaculate white shirt and red tie, dispensing with the military fatigues he’d donned at the weekend for a military parade at PLA’s Zhurihe training base in Inner Mongolia. More than 12,000 service personnel from across the army, air force, navy, police and strategic support troops marched below clear blue skies, as tanks and missile launchers rumbled by. Fighter jets roared and dozens of commandos leapt out of whirring helicopters.

It was China’s largest parade since the 70th anniversary of the culmination of World War II in September 2015. Then, Xi announced a reduction of 300,000 troops and other high-level organizational changes aimed at transforming the PLA into a modern, sleek fighting force, with significant implications for global security. More than 100 high-ranking military officers have been punished for various offenses including corruption since Xi took office in 2012. Seven PLA regional commands have been consolidated into five “theaters” and its schools cut from 74 to 43.

China’s military is modernizing rapidly as the Asian superpower attempts to sure up its global leadership position and project greater power beyond its borders. The PLA was formed in 1927 in response to anti-communist purges launched by China’s then-ruling Kuomintang, or Nationalists. Following the Allied victory in World War II, the PLA successfully defeated the Nationalists and forced their retreat across the Taiwan Strait. Since this time the PLA has had a reputation as a bloated, unsophisticated and poorly trained fighting force — though that is now changing.

“The force is modernizing very rapidly, probably more rapidly than most Westerners grasp,” says Lyle Goldstein, associate professor in the China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College. “Across the board it’s hard to find any weaknesses.”

New missiles were on display in Inner Mongolia, including the road-mobile DF-31AG, a new variant of its DF-31A intercontinental ballistic missile, as well as the the DF-16G and DF-26. The HQ-22 surface-to-air missile (SAM), the HQ-9 SAM, and the YJ-12A anti-ship missiles were also eagerly examined by cooing weapons experts. New generation aircraft on display included the Shenyang J-16 strike fighter and Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter. In April, China launched its first aircraft carrier and has long been reclaiming and militarizing islands in the South China Sea.

“In the long term, they have a vision for what kind of order they would like to see in Asia, and that’s clearly one where China has regional military dominance,” says Richard Weitz, director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis at Washington DC’s Hudson Institute. “Anything west of Hawaii they would like to have conventional superiority over any potential adversary.” (ontinueReading