HONG KONG (Reuters) – New members of the top military leadership under Xi Jinping, who has been re-elected general secretary of the Communist Party of China, were all chosen primarily for their loyalty to Xi. Such a report would serve an important military purpose in planning an invasion of Taiwan. It is to ensure a unity that is not disturbed and a strong resolve.
In the event of an actual invasion of Taiwan, the final decision would be made by the Standing Committee of the Politburo, the highest leadership of the Communist Party, but the formulation and execution of the battle plan would be entrusted to the Central Military Commission, they explain. highest organ of the army and Western military attachments in China.
“We will never commit to giving up the use of force” against Taiwan, Xi said in a political report to the Communist Party Congress, ahead of the election of three new members to the Central Military Commission on Thursday.
The four security experts and four military attachés pointed to the Russian “quagmire” in Ukraine and warned that if China intends to invade Taiwan, the Taiwanese military and the international community would take the lead, saying this would demonstrated how important it is to speed up the preparation and execution of an invasion, also from the point of view of control.
“If Xi wants to pull the trigger for an invasion of Taiwan, he cannot afford to listen to the opposition of the Central Military Commission. He must act with lightning, there is no room for hesitation. This is what the Chinese side thinks. always in Taiwan. The situation in Ukraine confirms the need to avoid delays in building a procurement position and get bogged down. It has been done, “he stresses.
Xi, who strengthened the party’s control over the army, sent three new members to the Central Military Commission and retained General Zhang Yuxia, the army’s most trusted member, as the uniformed group’s supreme vice president. increased his influence. Zhang Yuxia was 72, the age to retire according to the customs of the CMC.
James Char, a military researcher at the Rajatnam Institute for International Studies in Singapore, said: “Xi’s appointment of Mr. Xi, which broke the precedent, had to get two benefits at once.” leadership and political credibility at the top of the uniformed group.
Zhang Yuxia is so powerful that the US Department of Defense described him as a “little prince” of the People’s Liberation Army in a report on Chinese military modernization published last year. Mr. Zhang and Mr. Xi have a connection that their fathers were comrades in the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
General Lee Sang Bok, one of Zhang Yuxia’s sons, was also promoted to a member of the Central Military Commission this time. The important thing is that Lee has experience in the Strategic Support Force, which is responsible for electronic warfare, cyber warfare, and space warfare.
The second in rank after Zhang Yuxia in the Central Military Commission is General He Wei Dong, former commander of Eastern Theater Command, which includes Taiwan as an area of operations. In August of this year, He Weidong oversaw the unprecedented scale of Chinese military exercises near the Taiwan Strait in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
He Weidong is known to have a close relationship with Mr. Xi when serving in the 31st Army Group in the province when Mr. Xi was a provincial leader. Admiral Miao Hua, head of the Political Work Department, who also remained a member of the Central Military Commission, has a similar background.
This time, Liu Zhenli, 58, a former member of the People’s Armed Police responsible for internal security, joined the CMC, creating a generational shift in terms of age. Along with Zhang Yuxia, he fought in intermittent disputes over the Sino-Vietnamese border in the late 1980s.
However, an Asian military attaché in China said that despite the recent evolution of the People’s Liberation Army, it is clear that it currently has no experience of warfare. “All drills and parades cannot replace that. There is a clear question, both for ourselves and for those of us looking from the outside, that the PLA is capable of making war,” he said.
(Greg Torode reporter)
