Naval might on display
BEIJING: President Xi Jinping presided over the Chinese navy’s largestever military display on Thursday, state media reported, the country’s latest show of force in the disputed South China Sea.
State broadcaster China Central Television showed Xi boarding the destroyer Changsha before sailing to an unspecified location in the South China Sea and watching the procession, which involved more than 10,000 naval officers, 76 fighter jets, and a flotilla of 48 warships and submarines.
Xi told the assembled troops China’s need for a worldleading naval force ‘‘has never been more pressing than today’’ and urged them to devote their loyalty to the party, before watching through binoculars four J15 fighter jets take off from the Liaoning, China’s sole operational aircraft carrier.
He said the People’s Liberation Army should work to develop its naval forces, build up modern maritime combat system and strengthen its capability in diversified military missions.
China’s armed forces, the world’s largest, are in the middle of an ambitious modernisation program, which includes investment in technology and new equipment such as stealth fighters and aircraft carriers, as well as cuts to troop numbers.
But China’s military buildup has unnerved its neighbours, particu larly because of its increasing assertiveness in territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas and over Taiwan, a selfruled territory Beijing claims as its own.
Also on Thursday, China announced it would hold livefire military drills in the Taiwan Straits on April 18.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said in a statement that its army had the situation under control and could ensure Taiwan’s safety.
The naval review comes after the USS Theodore Roosevelt, leading a carrier strike group, conducted what the US military called routine training in the disputed South China Sea on Tuesday. — Reuters