Chinese warships sail in the South China Sea on July 15, 2021. Photo: VCG

Less than one month before the 96th founding anniversary of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) on August 1, President Xi Jinping stressed breaking new ground in enhancing the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) over the armed forces to provide a strong political guarantee for achieving the centennial goal of the PLA.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made the remarks in an instruction to a meeting on the Party building within the armed forces.

The meeting was held in Beijing on Thursday and Friday.

Earlier this month, on July 6, when Xi inspected the headquarters of the PLA Eastern Theater Command headquartered in East China's Jiangsu Province, he stressed making efforts to focus on the goals for the centennial anniversary of the PLA in 2027 and to break new ground for theater command development and war preparedness.

The visit marked Xi's first ever inspection tour of the PLA Eastern Theater Command headquarters, according to media reports.

Xi called for vigilance against potential dangers and urged all-out efforts to fulfill the duty of combat tasked with theater commands, as he noted that China's security situation is facing rising instability and uncertainty as the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation.

Xi said that China's armed forces must have the courage and ability to fight, and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests.

He called for strengthening Party building in all aspects and make the Party committee of the theater command more capable of leading combat readiness.

A J-20 stealth fighter jet delivers flight performances during the Air Force open-day event held in Changchun, Northeast China's Jilin Province on August 26, 2022.

China's national security has faced increasingly grave challenges, with the US military pouring its resources in an attempt to compete with and contain China, ganging up allies and forming cliques including QUAD and AUKUS targeting China, arming the island of Taiwan, provoking over the Taiwan question and the South China Sea issue, and leaning toward India over the China-India border conflict. A strategic and suppressive encirclement around China has been formed.

New security challenges keep on rising. The latest NATO Summit communiqué released on July 11 mentioned China much more than previous summit declarations, and Japan reportedly agreed a deal called the Individually Tailored Partnership Program with NATO recently that will elevate Japan-NATO collaboration. It is widely believed that the North Atlantic military alliance is on an eastward expansion into the Asia-Pacific region with explicit hostility toward China.

With conflicts taking place in other parts of the world, including the Ukraine crisis, analysts said that the global security situation as a whole is greatly deteriorating.

Safeguarding territorial sovereignty

During Xi's inspection of the Eastern Theater Command, he fully affirmed the significant contributions the command has made since its founding in safeguarding China's territorial sovereignty, maritime rights and interests as well as national unity.

The Eastern Theater Command is the most direct and most important force facing the island of Taiwan. 

It holds regular warplane and warship exercises and patrols near the island of Taiwan daily over the past several years in response to provocations by "Taiwan independence" and external interfering forces, including US arms sales to the island, US warship and warplane making transits through the Taiwan Straits and US-led military exercises around the region.

One year ago when the PLA celebrated its 95th founding anniversary, it was a special moment when the PLA raised alert and prepared countermeasures, as then US house speaker Nancy Pelosi was about to make a provocative visit to the island of Taiwan. The Eastern Theater Command organized large-scale military exercises following Pelosi's eventual landing on the island on August 2, which saw the island completely blocked by the PLA, with ballistic missiles flying over the island for the first time.

Troops of a brigade attached to the 74th Group Army hone military skills under high temperature and heavy rain on May 26, 2020. Photo: VCG

Following Taiwan regional leader Tsai Ing-wen's provocative transit visit in the US and her meeting with US house speaker Kevin McCarthy this April, the Eastern Theater Command once again conducted large-scale military exercises and combat patrols encircling the island of Taiwan.

The drills demonstrated the PLA's firm will and strong capability to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and thwart the secessionist attempts made by "Taiwan independence" and external interfering forces, Zhang Junshe, a senior research fellow at the Naval Research Academy of the PLA, told the Global Times.

Zhao Xiaozhuo, a research fellow at PLA's Academy of Military Sciences, told the Global Times that it showed that the PLA can form a blockade to cut off energy supply routes, reinforcement routes and escape routes of "Taiwan independence" forces, as well as their hopes for US military reinforcement.

In the South China Sea, the US frequently sends warships and warplanes to carry out close-in reconnaissance on China, as well as deploys aircraft carrier strike groups to conduct targeted exercises. It also stirs up island and reef disputes in the region, rallying up countries like the Philippines for joint exercises and gaining more forward deployment bases.

When Xi inspected the navy units of the PLA Southern Theater Command on April 11, he told the military to resolutely defend China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and strive to maintain the overall stability of the country's neighboring regions.

Xi stressed strengthening training and combat readiness and accelerating transformation to boost the armed forces' modernization levels on all fronts, calling on the armed forces to resolutely fulfill the duties entrusted by the CPC and the people.

The armed forces should develop new types of combat forces and means and accelerate efforts to incorporate new equipment and new forces into actual combat capacity, Xi said.

Over the recent years, the PLA has commissioned new equipment and new forces including the Type 15 light tanks, the Type 055 large destroyers, the J-20 stealth fighter jets with domestically developed engines and the DF-17 hypersonic missiles in addition to a wide variety of unmanned equipment.

With the PLA's centennial approaching, more new types of combat forces and means are reportedly under development or undergoing trials.

One of them is China's third aircraft carrier, the 80,000 ton-class electromagnetic catapults-equipped Fujian, which was launched on June 17, 2022. After the smoothly going mooring trials, the Fujian is expected to carry out its first sea trial within this year, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times.

DF-17 missiles are reviewed during the National Day military parade held in Beijing on October 1, 2019. Photo: VCG

Combat readiness highlighted

In another inspection tour of armed forces on January 18, ahead of the Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year, Xi spoke with soldiers from several troops undertaking border defense, coastal defense, air defense, stability maintenance and emergency response duties via video link.

Xi spoke with soldiers at a border defense station in Khunjerab under the Xinjiang military command, soldiers from a patrolling Chinese navy formation, soldiers in an air force aviation brigade and soldiers from the Falcon Commando Unit under the armed police force.

Xi called on the military to fulfill their combat readiness duties and safeguard national security and social stability, so as to ensure that all Chinese people are able to have a happy and safe Spring Festival.

In all the three major inspections of military units this year, Xi stressed combat readiness.

At a time when China's security situation is facing rising uncertainty and more challenges, getting ready for combat is conducive to maintaining stability and creating certainty, experts said.