Chinese President Xi Jinping urges party to be alert to national security risks
- Politburo told it must be alert to hidden risks and nip any threats in the bud
- Chinese leader says political security will be a priority for the next five years
Political security will be a top priority in the next five years and the Communist Party must proactively maintain the safety of the Chinese political system, President Xi Jinping urged on Saturday.
State media reported that Xi told a meeting of the Politburo, the party’s top policymaking body: “We must prevent and resolve national security risks, increase the capability to foresee and predict risks, and try to discover and nip in the bud the hidden risks with potential significant security implications.
“The importance of national security is defined by our location in the course of history and the current situation our country is facing.”
For the first time, the party’s latest five-year plan for the economy included a chapter on national security, which said it could be improved through and balanced with socioeconomic development.
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Xi listed 10 requirements for enhancing national security, including the party’s “absolute leadership” in connecting political security, people’s safety and the national interest.
The significance of national security has been “carved in the bones” of the Communist Party since its establishment, he said.
“Conventional and unconventional security risks must be dealt with,” he said. “We must make good use of the national security policy tool kit.”
Xi stressed the Chinese people should be mobilised to defend national security, while the national security system itself must be reformed and modernised using new scientific and technological developments.
“We must strengthen talent building for national security personnel,” he said. “To forge an unbreakable team of cadres.”
He also said he wanted more international cooperation.
The Chinese leadership is worried that the growing rivalry with the United States will create political volatility inside China and is concerned by Washington’s attacks on the party.
In July US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used Xi’s title of “general secretary” of the party rather than describing him as the Chinese president, and said Chinese citizens should be empowered to change the behaviour of the government – which some in Beijing saw as a threat.
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In recent months, Beijing has expressed increasing concern about what it describes as “independence forces” in Hong Kong and Taiwan, introducing a controversial national security law in the former British colony.
China has also repeatedly accused the United States of meddling in China’s internal affairs with its interventions over Xinjiang and Tibet.
Last month, domestic security chief Guo Shengkun wrote an article published in a book explaining the five-year plan which said China “must defend against and strike hard on sabotage, subversion and splittism by hostile forces”
“Against the backdrop of US-China confrontation, China faces increasing uncertainty and instability in its external environment,” wrote Guo, who is also a member of the Politburo.
