Xi calls for faster upgrade of armed forces

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping called for “rapidly raising the armed forces to world-class levels” days after warning the country was threatened by a U.S.-led campaign of “containment, encirclement and suppression of China”.

China should maximize its “national strategic capabilities” with the aim of “systematically improving the country’s overall strength to deal with strategic risks, protect strategic interests and achieve strategic goals”, Xi said on Wednesday.

His remarks to ceremonial parliamentary delegates representing the People’s Liberation Army, the armed wing of the ruling Communist Party, and the People’s Armed Police, a paramilitary body, were reported by the official Xinhua news agency.

Xi issued a series of calls to accelerate the development of self-reliance in science and technology, strengthen strategic capabilities in emergency areas, make industrial and supply chains more resilient, and make national reserves “more capable “to protect national security”.

The program outlined by Xi fits into a number of national strategies already underway, such as the “Made in China 2025” campaign which aims to make the country the dominant force in 10 key areas, from integrated circuits to aerospace, and with a multi-decade campaign for civil-military integration in the economy.

Xi also spoke of the need “to achieve the military’s centennial goals by 2027”, the date by which, according to some American observers, China claims to have the capacity to militarily conquer Taiwan, an ally of Washington.

China has loosely defined the centenary goals as further “computerization” and the elevation of the military to “world-class levels”.

Beijing’s defense budget has nearly doubled in the past decade, enabling it to maintain the world’s largest standing army at two million men, the world’s largest navy by number of ships and the largest forces Indo-Pacific missiles and aircraft.