{"id":44071,"date":"2020-10-14T06:24:20","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T06:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44071"},"modified":"2020-10-14T06:24:20","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T06:24:20","slug":"china-holds-new-naval-drill-as-xi-steps-up-military-rhetoric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44071","title":{"rendered":"China holds new naval drill as Xi steps up military rhetoric"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chinese president calls for speedier upgrade of military equipment as he urges soldiers to \u2018focus on war preparedness\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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China conducted new naval exercises on Wednesday, a report quoting maritime officials said, amid escalating tensions in the South China Sea and as President Xi Jinping urged the military to \u201cfocus on war preparedness and combat capabilities\u201d.<\/p>\n

The state-owned Global Times quoted the country\u2019s maritime safety agency as saying that drills were taking place in the Bohai Sea in China\u2019s northeast from 6am to 5pm (22:00 GMT Tuesday \u2013 09:00 GMT Wednesday).<\/p>\n

It was unclear what specific naval manoeuvres and hardware were involved in the day-long event, but Bohai was part of bigger naval activities in September that included live-fire exercises. At that time, China prohibited all non-military ships in the areas where drills were taking place.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Tuesday, Xi inspected the elite Chinese navy and marine corps stationed in Guangdong Province in the south, during which he called for a speedier upgrade of their combat capabilities \u201cto forge a powerful troop, with battlewise soldiers,\u201d according to state media.<\/p>\n

The report said that the inspection \u201csent a signal that China will speed up its preparation for any potential military conflict\u201d in several areas including the disputed South China Sea and Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own.<\/p>\n

Xi also urged the Chinese troops to maintain \u201ca high level of readiness\u201d and focus on \u201ccombat-oriented\u201d and \u201cforce-on-force\u201d training.<\/p>\n

He added that China\u2019s soldiers should be \u201cswift in response, and capable of fighting under multi-dimensional conditions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Escalating tensions<\/h2>\n

Tensions in the South China Sea have escalated in recent months with China and the US accusing each other of provocative moves.<\/p>\n

Recently, the US has accused Beijing of continuing expansion of its artificial islands in parts of the South China Sea and for making hostile moves towards Taiwan, a US ally.<\/p>\n

Taiwan has come under increasing pressure from Beijing since Tsai Ing-wen was first elected president in 2016, and air force manoeuvres have intensified since she was returned to office in a landslide in January.<\/p>\n

In the past few weeks, China\u2019s planes have sometimes crossed the Taiwan Strait\u2019s sensitive midline that normally serves as an unofficial buffer zone.<\/p>\n

The US has also criticised China\u2019s treatment of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang province as well as Beijing\u2019s newly imposed national security law in Hong Kong, which it says is a direct assault on the freedom of territory\u2019s residents.<\/p>\n

For its part, China has accused the US of \u201cstirring up confrontation\u201d<\/a> in the region, by deploying several of its warships in its back yard and for selling advanced military weapons to Taiwan, which China considers as a renegade province.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Global Times accused the US of \u201cgradually leaning towards Taiwan secession\u201d.<\/p>\n

China has also complained about the US effort to establish a so-called Indo-Pacific alliance, a security partnership similar to NATO, which it says threatens the stability of the region.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the emerging US-led partnership could \u201cmark the beginning of a dangerous and slippery\u201d slope in the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n

Wang also warned against \u201cexternal disruptions\u201d, stressing that the future of the region \u201cshould be determined by the people in the region\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chinese president calls for speedier upgrade of military equipment as he urges soldiers to \u2018focus on war preparedness\u2019.China conducted new naval exercises on Wednesday, a report quoting maritime officials said, amid escalating tensions in the South China Sea and as President Xi Jinping urged the military to \u201cfocus on war preparedness and combat capabilities\u201d. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}