China’s Xi Jinping calls on troops to focus on “preparing for war”: report


Chinese President Xi Jinping said troops must “maintain a state of high alert.”

New Delhi:

Chinese President Xi Jinping called on his troops to “prepare for war,” the state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday. “The troops must” maintain a state of high alert … Put all (your) mind and energy into preparing for war, “Xi Jinping said, according to Xinhua.

The troops must be “absolutely loyal, absolutely pure and absolutely reliable,” the Chinese president said during his visit to the PLA Marine Corps in Chaozhou city.

The sources said that President Xi’s remarks “were not specifically directed at India,” despite the fact that they came amid the border dispute in Ladakh.

The comment coincides with Chinese claims about a United States Navy warship passing through the Taiwan Strait, an area China is sensitive about.

Beijing claims sovereignty over certain areas in the South China Sea, where Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan have made counterclaims.

The traditionally thorny relationship between Beijing and Washington has intensified in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak and open US support for Taiwan, which is seeking to increase its influence in the Indo-Pacific area.

US President Donald Trump has made numerous references to the “Wuhan virus” and blamed China for the outbreak.

At the recent Quad meeting, the four major Indo-Pacific democracies of India, the United States, Japan and Australia, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the “Wuhan virus” crisis was “exacerbated by Chinese Communists “. Party cover-up. “

“We also resolve the precious freedoms and sovereignty of the various nations in the region,” Pompeo had said, to “protect” them from the “coercion, exploitation and corruption” of the Chinese Communist Party.

“We have seen it in the South and East Seas of China, Hong Kong, the Himalayas, the Taiwan Strait … these are just a few examples,” he added.

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