Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday ordered the military to scale up the battle preparedness, visualising the worst-case scenarios and asked them to resolutely defend the country's sovereignty. Though he did no mention any specific threat, his comments came amid a face-off between soldiers of India and China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Jinping, the general secretary of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission was attending a plenary meeting of a delegation of People's Liberation Army and People's Armed Police Force, Xinhua reported. Jinping's comments may be viewed on the backdrop of the ongoing tension between Indian and Chinese troops in Eastern Ladakh. Earlier today, PM Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting of military chiefs and National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval to review the situation along the Chinese borders.
Several areas along the LAC in Ladakh and North Sikkim have witnessed major military build-up by both the Indian and Chinese armies recently, in a clear signal of escalating tension and hardening of respective positions by the two sides even two weeks after they were engaged in two separate face-offs. The Chinese President's directive comes at a time when its relations with India have strained after tensions along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh flared up. The war cry also comes amid rising tensions with the US, belligerent speeches by Chinese politicians in reference with Taiwan, and renewed protests in Hong Kong. The US-China military frictions were also on the rise with the US navy stepping its patrols in the disputed South China Sea as well as the Taiwan Straits. Washington and Beijing are also engaged in a war of words over the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.