Prepare for 'worst-case' scenarios: China’s Xi Jinping sounds national security alert

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on his top national security officials to prepare for “worst-case” scenarios and “stormy seas” as China faces increasingly difficult and complex internal and external threats.

According to a CNN report, citing state-run Xinhua, in a meeting with China’s top security officials in Beijing, Xi said, “The complexity and difficulty of the national security issues we now face have increased significantly.”

“We must adhere to bottom-line thinking and worst-case-scenario thinking, and get ready to undergo the major tests of high winds and rough waves, and even perilous, stormy seas,” he added.

He added that more efforts were needed to modernise the nation’s security architecture and “get prepared for actual combat and dealing with practical problems.”

He also called for China to push ahead with the construction of a national security risk monitoring and early warning system, enhance national security education and improve the management of data and artificial intelligence security.

The latest stern instructions from Xi came as he chaired a meeting of the National Security Commission, his first since securing an unprecedented third term as leader of China’s ruling Communist Party at its 20th congress in October. Xi heads both the commission and the Chinese military.

Beijing is facing a host of challenges, from a struggling economy to what it sees as an increasingly hostile international environment.

US, China lock horns

Rival powers China and the United States have been locking horns on many fronts.

Just this week, Beijing declined Washington’s request for a meeting between the two countries’ defence chiefs when both men attend a security conference in Singapore in June, citing the need for US officials to respect China’s sovereignty and security concerns.

China cut off defence and climate ties with Washington last August over alleged meddling by US officials in Taiwan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning demanded on Wednesday that the US stop flying spy planes over the South China Sea, calling the flights “dangerous provocations.”

Her statement came one day after the US Indo-Pacific Command accused a Chinese pilot of causing a near-collision by buzzing his fighter jet in front of an American reconnaissance plane in international airspace above the South China Sea.

The Pentagon has labeled China “the most consequential and systemic challenge” to US national security – an assessment that Beijing derided as an excuse to expand Washington’s nuclear arsenal and maintain its military hegemony.

Both sides have also stepped up national security scrutiny, especially in the technology sector, with the US slapping sanctions on a slew of Chinese companies in the past few years citing security concerns.

Xi urged his security chiefs to build up “strategic self-confidence,” improve the coordination of their operations and utilise more advanced technology.

He called for enhanced real-time monitoring of security threats, a better early warning system and improved handling of computer data and artificial intelligence (AI).

In March, in a rare public comment on the US tech rivalry, Xi directly named Washington for leading the Western suppression of China.

With inputs from agencies

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