Chinese leader Xi Jinping teased “worst case” scenarios to his top national security officials and asked them to prepare for “stormy seas” in Communist Party’s effort to counter internal and “external threats”.
“The complexity and difficulty of the national security issues we now face have increased significantly,” Xi said on Tuesday at a meeting of the party’s National Security Commission, Xinhua reported.
“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.
The developments come as Beijing faces a struggling economy and a perceived hostile international environment.
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Xi said that in the face of a “complex and grave” situation Beijing must accelerate the modernisation of its national security system and capabilities for “actual combat and practical use”.
Xi Jinping also called for a push to the construction of a national security risk monitoring and early warning system.
The Chinese leader has made national security a key issue which embeds into almost every aspect of China’s governance.
He has expanded the concept of national security to cover everything from politics, economy, defense, culture and ecology to cyberspace. It extends from the deep sea and the polar regions to space, as well as big data and artificial intelligence.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Xi said China must proactively shape a “secured external environment” to better maintain the security of the country’s “opening up” and “promote the deep integration of development and security.”
China has been tightening national security measures and putting more scrutiny on technology like generative artificial intelligence services.
Xi said the country needs to improve the level of network data and artificial intelligence security governance.
China under Xi has seen the almost-total eradication of civil society, scores of activists have fled the country and opposition to the government has been all but snuffed out.
In the far-western region of Xinjiang, human rights groups say more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are detained in what the United States and lawmakers in some Western countries have said amounts to genocide.
(With inputs from agencies)
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