President Xi Jinping tells China’s troops to focus on ‘preparing to go to war’: reports

China’s President Xi Jinping on Tuesday instructed the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops to “put their minds and energy on preparing for war”, according to the news agency. During an inspection of the People’s Liberation Army Marine Corps in Chaozhou City, the CCP controlled Xinhua said Xi told the soldiers to “maintain a state of high alert” and called on them to be “absolutely loyal, absolutely pure, and absolutely reliable”, reported.

As per reports, the purpose of Xi’s visit to Guangdong military base was to deliver a speech on Wednesday to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, which played a vital role in helping China’s economy become the second-largest in the world.

Meanwhile, it is not yet clear whether this comment was directed towards India, Japan or the US, and other countries with which China is involved in a tussle in the South China Sea region. The tensions between China and the US, with issues pertaining to disagreements over Taiwan and the COVID-19 pandemic, have increased over the past few months.

India and China are currently engaged in a dialogue both at the military and diplomatic levels to ease the tensions at the border.

The White House had earlier notified US Congress on Monday that it was planning to move ahead with the sale of three advanced weapon systems to Taiwan, including the advanced High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), the agency said. In response, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian had called on Washington to “immediately cancel any arms sales plans to Taiwan” and cut all “US-Taiwan military ties.”