Xi Urges Coordination of Military, Economic Strategy at Sea

Chinese President Xi Jinping called on the military to dovetail its maritime strategy with economic development, comments that came in a meeting with defense lawmakers at the country’s annual legislative session.

The armed forces “should coordinate the preparation for maritime military conflicts, the protection of maritime rights and interests, and the development of the maritime economy,” Xi said at the meeting on Thursday, according to a report by state broadcaster China Central Television.

Xi’s comments came as tensions have flared in the South China Sea. Coast guard vessels from China and the Philippines collided this week during the Southeast Asian nation’s resupply mission. The two countries have been locked in a territorial dispute in the waters, with Beijing claiming nearly all of the resource-rich sea, including areas that Manila says are part of its exclusive economic zone.

“The phrase ‘development of the maritime economy’ appears to be Beijing’s implicit acknowledgment that one of its primary motives there is guided by the desire to monopolize the energy reserves and other marine resources in those waters,” said James Char, a research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reiterated at a Thursday press conference that the nation has always maintained a high degree of restraint, warning other countries against taking sides in the South China Sea.

In his meeting with military lawmakers, Xi also urged the army to push forward the building of the aerospace sector, improve its ability to safeguard cybersecurity, and step up coordination and implementation of major smart-technology projects.

Xi called for innovation and reforms to the defense tech industry to unleash “new quality fighting forces.” That appeared to allude to “new productive forces,” a term he recently started using to encourage “high technology, high efficiency and high quality” as economic drivers.

Lawmakers at the meeting discussed issues from “the application of artificial intelligence to the development and utilization of unmanned combat capabilities,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The US has campaigned to curb China’s access to high-end semiconductor technology, partly due to concerns advances in AI could have military uses. Wang criticized that effort by Washington in his briefing, saying it was intended to suppress his nation. 

Bloomberg