Have the courage to fight, urges Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping has said China needs to harden its scientific self-sufficiency, build its ‘strategic capabilities’ and promote a nationwide love of the military.

An attendant takes a selfie outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

Xi Jinping has said China needs to harden its scientific self-sufficiency, build its “strategic capabilities” and promote a nationwide love of the military, as communist party members are urged to follow the strongman leader’s new banner phrase: “Be calm … and have the courage to fight.”

Dressed in military fatigues, China’s leader urged senior members of the People’s Liberation Army to build a “world-class” fighting force, which he said was a key part of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”.

Defence has become more important as the country faced an increasingly difficult international situation, Mr Xi told a meeting on Wednesday at the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp parliament, in Beijing.

“We should create a strong atmosphere of caring for national defence, loving national defence, building national defence, and safeguarding national defence throughout society in order to … gather strong forces for promoting a strong military and a strong country.”

Mr Xi said new technologies were the top focus for the country’s military modernisation. “China needs to better use defence science, technology and industry to strengthen its army and win wars,” he said.

The military pep talk was given days after Beijing revealed it was ramping up defence spending by more than 7 per cent in 2023 to $330bn and shortly after Mr Xi lashed out at the “all-round containment, encirclement and suppression” of China by America and its allies.

It came as America’s director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warned in the Annual Threat Assessment that Beijing could use its power in global supply chains to advance its political and military might.

Washington’s threat assessment singled out China’s dominance in technology sectors including semiconductors, critical minerals, batteries, solar panels and pharmaceuticals.

“The government of China is capable of leveraging its dominant positions in key global supply chains in an attempt to accomplish its goals, although probably not without significant cost to itself,” the report said.

It said that could be a particular danger if China was able to take over Taiwan, a major hub in the international semiconductor industry. China’s new foreign minister this week said the country reserved the right to “take all necessary measures” to bring self-ruled Taiwan’s 23 million people under communist party control.

Beijing has become increasingly frustrated by the Biden administration’s success in increasing its co-operation with America’s allies and partners in the region. Japan is on track to double its defence spending over the next five years while a South Korean official this week said the Yoon government was looking to increase co-operation with the Quad, the four-country grouping that Beijing has denounced as a tool to contain China.

In a breakthrough, the Philippines last month agreed to allow the US access to four additional military bases in the country, Taiwan’s neighbour.

Australia, working with the US and Britain, will on Monday reveal the details of its acquisition of a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS security arrangement.

Mr Xi and his leadership team have said China’s more assertive approach was necessary to defend the rising power’s interests.

During a recent address at the National People’s Congress, Mr Xi gave instructions for how to deal with the increasingly difficult international environment. “Be calm and maintain determination, seek progress through stability, actively achieve things, unite and have the courage to fight,” he said.

Qin Gang, China’s new foreign minister and a Xi confidant, this week rejected Washington’s complaints that Beijing was not co-operating to prevent the escalation of a potential military crisis. “Its so-called ‘establishing guardrails’ for China-US relations and ‘not seeking conflict’ actually means that China should not respond in words or action when slandered or attacked. That is just impossible!” he said.