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Xi Jinping tells Chinese army to step up combat readiness as budget rise is blamed on security threats
- Military must boost its ability to perform military missions, China’s president says, after praising its Covid-19 efforts
- Defence ministry spokesman says China’s campaign against separatism is ‘getting grimmer’
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The Chinese army must step up combat readiness, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said, as the country increases defence spending to tackle “security threats from Taiwan independence forces”.
Xi told Chinese military officers on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had performed well in helping to contain the Covid-19 outbreak but should explore new ways of training during the pandemic.
“It is necessary to explore ways of training and preparing for war because epidemic control efforts have been normalised,” Xi was quoted by state news agency Xinhua. “It is necessary to step up preparations for armed combat, to flexibly carry out actual combat military training, and to improve our military’s ability to perform military missions.”
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Xi, who chairs the Central Military Commission, said the pandemic had created challenges for the military, but China’s integration of the civil, military and political spheres had been an advantage during the crisis.
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His meeting with PLA officers came as China announced a 6.6 per cent year-on-year increase in its defence budget.
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