China shows off its military might as president tries to cement his power
BEIJING — China’s president, Xi Jinping, has opened a public campaign to deepen his grip on power in a coming leadership shake-up, using a huge military parade on Sunday, speeches and propaganda, along with a purge in the past week, to warn officials to back him as the nation’s most powerful leader in two decades.
Wearing his mottled green uniform as commander in chief of the People’s Liberation Army, Xi watched as 12,000 troops marched and tanks, longrange missile launchers, jet fighters and other new weapons drove or flew past in impeccable arrays.
Mao famously said political power comes from the barrel of a gun, and Xi signaled that he, too, was counting on the military to stay ramrod loyal while he chooses a new leading lineup to be unveiled at a Communist Party congress in the autumn.
“Troops across the entire military, you must be unwavering in upholding the bedrock principle of absolute party leadership of the military,” Xi said at the parade, held on a dusty training base in Inner Mongolia region, 270 miles northwest of Beijing. “Always obey and follow the party. Go and fight wherever the party points.”
The ceremony was broadcast across the country.
Officially, the display was to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the creation of the People’s Liberation Army. But it was also the highlight of a week of political theater promoting Xi as a uniquely qualified politician whose elevated status as China’s “core” leader, endorsed by officials last year, should be entrenched at the party congress.
“These military parades could become a regular, institutionalized thing, but this one also has a special meaning this year,” said Deng Yuwen, a former editor at a party newspaper in Beijing who writes current affairs commentaries. “It’s meant to show that Xi Jinping firmly has the military in his grip, and nobody should have any illusions of challenging him.”
The congress will almost certainly give Xi, 64, a second, five-year term as the party general secretary and chairman of the commission that controls the military, and it will appoint a new team to work under him.
No exact date has been fixed for the congress. An annual legislative meeting early next year will also almost certainly give Xi five more years as state president.
Some experts have speculated that Xi may want to retain power after those terms end, although the constitution says he cannot stay on as president. There are no firm rules for maximum terms as party general secretary.