Xi Jinping Warns of Potential Armed Conflict, Calls China To Prepare Military Leadership

President Xi Jinping of China urged China's military leadership to improve its ties with the Communist Party, while also warning of armed conflict and security issues along the country's Afghan border.

China Should Be Prepared for 'Military Struggle'

In a recently published article in MSN News, Xi warned on Friday that China must be ready for "military conflict" as the US prepares to leave Afghanistan by September 11 this year. Before the 94th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) founding, Xi made comments on increasing the country's military might.

For months, Chinese officials have voiced worry that the United States' departure from Afghanistan is provoking a Taliban comeback and provoking regional instability. Xi and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned this week that the U.S. withdrawal may provide Uyghur rebels a base of terror operations from which to launch assaults against the CCP in Xinjiang's western province.

President Xi Jinping said "National defense and the military must be placed in a more important position, and the consolidation of national defense and a strong military must be accelerated. We must persist in strengthening the overall planning of war and make preparations for military struggle," according to a published article in South China Morning Post.

Xi Calls People's Liberation Army To Be 'Absolutely Loyal'

Xi also urged the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to be "completely loyal" to the Communist Party, according to the CCP's Qiushi magazine, and he stated that China's system of absolute leadership gives the nation a military edge over Western democracies.

Moreover, Xi has repeatedly pushed the PLA to prepare for battle in all theaters of war since becoming the president of the Central Military Commission eight years ago. In 2015, Xi oversaw a major reform of China's armed forces to modernize the country's military.

On Friday, Xi reiterated this attitude, pushing military and party officials to strive for significant technical advancements in their armed forces. The Chinese President wants to foster high-level scientific and technical independence, speed up research on important core technologies, and create strategic, cutting-edge, and disruptive innovations, according to a published article in Fliying News.

Chinese Foreign Minister Meets Taliban Delegation

In a recently published article in Hindustan Times, on Wednesday, a Taliban delegation headed by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, amid increasing Chinese worries over the operations of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which aims to create an Uyghur state.

This is the first visit to China by a top Taliban commander since the organization began a major assault to seize territory throughout Afghanistan, coinciding with the fast withdrawal of the U.S. and NATO troops from the country. In 2019, China welcomed a Taliban delegation that met with Deng Xijun, the special envoy for Afghanistan at the time.

Chinese officials have previously met with Taliban leaders as well as representatives from Afghanistan, the United States, and Pakistan, but little progress had been made in attempts to reach a political solution.