the chinese president, Xi Jinpingon Thursday asked the national armed forces located in the east of the country to “intensify” their “training in real combat conditions to increase their ability to fight and win,” the official Xinhua news agency reported today.
During a visit to the eastern city of Nanjing, Xi urged the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command to “improve war planning and combat.”
“At a time when the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation, the security situation in China is facing increasing instability and uncertainty,” said the Chinese leader, who is also head of the Army for holding the position of president of the Central Military Commission.
Xi stressed the need to “focus on the goals of the PLA centenary,” which will be held in 2027the date by which China is scheduled to “build a fully modern Army.”
The PLA’s Eastern Theater of Operations, which Xi addressed, is responsible for policing the Strait of taiwanan island whose sovereignty Beijing has claimed since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the war against the communist army and for whose “reunification” it has not ruled out the use of force.
Tension in the area has been high since August of last year, when the then Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosivisited Taiwan, a trip that angered Beijing.
Since then, Chinese military aircraft have routinely conducted raids on Taiwan’s Airborne Identification Zone (ADIZ).
Likewise, US military ships have crossed the strait in recent months in defense of “freedom of navigation”, something that Beijing describes as a provocation.
The self-governing island is one of the main reasons for friction between China and the USsince the North American country is the main supplier of arms to Taiwan.
