“Prepare for war”: Xi Jinping tells troops after visit to military base

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on troops to “put all (their) minds and energy on preparing for war” in a visit to a military base in the southern province of Guangdong on Tuesday, state news agency Xinhua reported .

During an inspection of the People’s Liberation Army Marine Corps in Chaozhou City, Xinhua said Mr. Xi told the soldiers to “maintain a state of high alert” and called on them to be “absolutely loyal, absolutely pure, and absolutely reliable.”

The military visit comes as tensions between China and the United States as well as neighbouring India remain at their highest point in decades, with disagreements over Taiwan and the coronavirus pandemic creating sharp divisions between Washington and Beijing.
However, it was not yet clear whether this comment was directed towards India, Japan or the US and other countries with which China is embroiled in a tussle in the South China Sea region.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had said that Beijing doesn’t recognize “Ladakh Union Territory and Arunachal Pradesh.” The Chinese MFA in a statement said that Ladakh Union Territory is a region “illegally established by India”. (with inputs from WION).