Chinese President Xi Jinping was elected as general secretary of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and secured an unprecedented third term, however, it may prove disastrous for world peace, as well as, Taiwan.
Chinese leaders know that only by raising national sentiment, can they be able to overcome people’s growing frustration in the country, reported The HK Post.
Invariably, it is rhetoric and President Jinping seems to have resorted to it to divert the attention of the public, who feel stifled and subjugated under the draconian CPC regime.
The zero-Covid policy has exposed China’s cruelty towards its own people, when in the name of public safety, city after city was put under severe lockdown for months without the proper arrangement for food, water, and medicines for residents.
Hit hard by zero-Covid policy, the economy and the employment situation in the country are in dire strait. Chinese social media outlets like Weibo and WeChat are full of stories of individual trials and tribulations.
In this regard, several experts predict, the third term of Xi Jinping as China’s President could be full of challenges for the East Asian country and the world as well. There is a possibility, the Indo-Pacific region could be a theatre of war in the immediate future.
Moreover, Xi’s statement at the weeklong 20th National Congress has blown away any hope of seeing the globe rinsed off the threat and geopolitical tension very soon.
He emphasized safeguarding China’s core interests (read it as the country’s territorial claims), strengthening military capabilities and non-abandoning the use of force for the reunification of Taiwan, reported The HK Post.
This leaves little room for speculation about China’s move in the next five-year, given that it continues to project its military might in the Indo-Pacific region where Taiwan’s unification by force will pit it against the US, triggering a possible war between the two countries.
Therefore, for the recession-hit world, which is grappling with a food and fuel crisis–on account of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Xi Jinping’s statement has come as a bolt from the blue, reported The HK Post.
In the background of the fact that Beijing, which has the world’s second-largest military budget after the US, is ratcheting up defence technologies. It is trying to extend the reach of its ballistic missiles, building two more aircraft carriers (it has currently three aircraft carriers); it has a military post in Djibouti and is secretly developing new ones on foreign shores like Cambodia and Kiribati: it has signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands this year in April, which will allow it to deploy forces to protect Chinese personnel and major projects in the Solomon Islands.
China is also investing hugely in the professional training of its armed forces. A UK-based media report recently claimed that China is luring in ex-British military pilots with large sums of money to pass on their expertise to the Chinese military, reported The HK Post.
The British public broadcaster said up to 30 former UK military pilots are thought to have gone to China to train members of the People’s Liberation Army.
There are also media reports of China poaching former military personnel from other countries to train its armed forces. Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles has said he has ordered the department to probe claims that ex-Australian military pilots were recruited by a flight school in South Africa to work in China.
By hiring these retired pilots from Britain, Australia or New Zealand, China will not only help its military learn the ways foreign pilots operate advanced aircraft, the East Asian country is also preparing for possible conflict with Taiwan and neighbouring countries in the foreseeable future.