[ad_1]
This week, Chinese President Xi Jinping asked the Southern Theater Command, which oversees the South China Sea and Taiwan, to strengthen its military capabilities to prepare for a possible conflict, according to a Hong Kong newspaper.
During a visit to the region on Thursday, October 25, Xi said that it was necessary to "focus preparations for the war," reported the South China Morning Post, quoting a transcript of Xi's speech by the public television channel China Central Television. "We must take into account all complex situations and develop contingency plans accordingly."
The Xinhua State newspaper also noted the speech, adding that Xi "had stressed the importance of preparing for war and fighting".
In recent years, China has emerged more and more in the South China Sea, building militarized islands over reefs and fortifying other lands it occupies. China claims almost all the sea, using as justification its "nine-dash line", which surrounds most of the waterway. An international court overturned the claim in July 2016, but China ignored its findings.
China quickly modernized and developed its navy (Paywall), which last year became the largest in the world, with more warships and submarines than the United States. Although the US Navy is even more advanced, Admiral Philip Davidson, who heads the Indo-Pacific Command of the United States, said in his Senate confirmation process (pdf) earlier this year that China " is now able to control the South China Sea in any case, war with the United States. "
On the same day of Xi's speech, Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe said his country would not abandon "one piece" of its territory and warned that "repeated challenges" to its sovereignty over Taiwan would direct military action.
Such rhetoric is not entirely new: in November 2017, for example, Xi told the army that she should be ready to "fight and win wars". But it adds to an already tense situation in one of the geopolitical hotspots of the world. On September 30, a Chinese destroyer nearly collided with an American warship in the South China Sea after doing what US military officials described as an "unsafe and unprofessional maneuver".
Such incidents are likely to continue.
