Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) recent tour of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command might be a sign of fears about the military’s loyalty following the Wagner Group’s abortive revolt against Moscow, an expert in Taipei said yesterday.
Shortly before US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen’s arrival in Beijing, Xi visited the headquarters of the PLA’s Eastern Theater on Thursday.
Xi was cited by Bejing’s state-owned Xinhua News Agency as telling the command during his visit that the PLA must strengthen, combat planning and training to improve China’s chances to achieve victory in potential military conflicts.
Photo: EPA-EFE / XINHUA / LI GANG
He urged the Chinese armed forces to augment the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) committee of the theater command more capable of heading combat readiness, the agency said.
The PLA Eastern Theater command is responsible for conducting Chinese military operations in eastern China, the Taiwan Strait and the Pacific Ocean.
In Taipei, National Policy Foundation associate research fellow Chieh Chung (揭仲) said that Xi’s latest speech to the PLA differed from his previous addresses in its emphasis on the importance of the military’s obedience to the party.
Chinese leader’s statements to the PLA almost always harped on the same three themes of enhancing combat capabilities, obedience to the party and the latter’s supremacy over the military in China’s political structure, he said.
Xi has significantly increased the portion of his address dedicated to political subjects, which might indicate alarm about regime security triggered by Wagner mercenary force leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s coup d’etat, Chieh said.
The war in Ukraine has shown that Moscow’s subordination of Russian armed forces has been weakened by the fighting, which might explain Xi’s demand for party committees to tighten their grip, he said.
Xi underscored the importance of fighting corruption, which he invoked during the purge of the PLA, Chieh said, adding that his reiteration of this point can be construed as a reminder and warning to Chinese generals.
Overall, Xi’s speech appears to buttress the regime’s efforts to elevate the status of PLA party committees and, by extension, Beijing’s control over the armed forces, which has been an article of CCP doctrine, he said.
As Eastern Theater Command’s subordinate units are responsible for battling the forces of Taiwan, Japan and the US, Xi would be motivated to ensure that the command would remain faithful instruments for carrying out the party’s political aims, he said.
In related developments, the PLA sent 13 aircraft and six vessels into airspace and the waters around Taiwan, overlapping with Yellen’s visit to Beijing aimed at mending strained relations.
The Ministry of National Defense said it is monitoring the situation from the air and sea, and land-based missile systems were prepared to respond.
It said four Chinese aircraft — two SU-30 fighters, one BZK-005 reconnaissance plane and one Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane — crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait that serves as a de-facto border between the sides, and entered Taiwan’s southwestern air defense identification zone.
Additional reporting by AP
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