What Xi Jinping’s show of military strength means for China’s neighbours
Countries locked in disputes with China may see Sunday’s event as a warning, but parade, speeches have to be taken in context, experts say
China’s military parade on Sunday and the comments made by President Xi Jinping at the event will undoubtedly have caught the attention of its neighbours, especially those with which it has territorial disputes, analysts said.
The huge show of strength at the Zhurihe Combined Tactics Training Base in Inner Mongolia – the largest facility of its kind in Asia – was watched by military observers from India, Japan, Singapore and around the world. And Xi’s order to the assembled troops to defeat “all enemies that dare to offend” China’s national sovereignty, security and development interests will not have gone unnoticed.
However, Collin Koh Swee Lean, a research fellow with the Maritime Security Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said that Xi’s comments must be given perspective.
“This flexing of muscle, in my opinion, wasn’t just intended for an external audience – either as an overt signal to perceived adversaries embroiled with China in land and maritime disputes or merely as a general deterrence against would-be aggressors,” he said.