The Chinese leader is demanding the country’s armed forces continue to root out corruption following a series of purges that have raised questions about China’s military preparedness.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has cast China as a source of ‘precious stability’ in a world made increasingly chaotic by Donald Trump’s America.
It has been the guiding star of the Chinese PLA since at least the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 when America replaced the USSR as the military threat that most worried Beijing.
In an escalating war of words over US tariffs, the US Defence Secretary was responding to a strident statement from China that it was ‘ready to fight any type of war.’
In his keynote address, Premier Li Qiang set an ‘ambitious’ growth target and pledged ‘new combat capabilities’ in a budget delivered during rising tensions with the Trump administration.
Beijing has declared that America’s chaotic domestic politics shows the superiority of the Chinese political system, as thousands of Xi Jinping’s top comrades gather in China’s capital.
Thinned out by yet another wave of purges, Xi Jinping and his top officials are about to meet amid tight restrictions for the ‘Two Sessions’ of congress.
Liang Wenfeng, 40, has suddenly become a pin-up for Beijing, a darling of China’s private sector and an idol to many young Chinese inspired by his desire to be ‘an innovator, not just a follower’.
Chinese defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian on Sunday said the PLA had sent repeated safety notices before the drills and that his country was ‘strongly dissatisfied’ with Australia’s response.
The Albanese government has lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing over a live weapons drill between Australia and New Zealand, as the Defence Minister reveals China is yet to give a ‘satisfactory’ explanation.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/will-glasgow/page/3