Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday stressed the need to strengthen national security. He emphasized this importance in his first speech after assuming power for the historic third term as the country’s president. News from AFP.
Xi became China’s most powerful leader in generations last week as he broke with longstanding political precedent and was reappointed for another five years at the helm of the world’s most populous nation.
China’s ‘rubber-stamp parliament’, the National People’s Congress (NPC), has appointed key Xi ally Li Qiang as the country’s new prime minister.
Xi, 69, thanked thousands of delegates at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Monday for a third term in power and pledged to “take the needs of the country as my goal and the interests of the people as one of my criteria.”
“Security is the foundation of development and stability is the prerequisite for prosperity,” Xi told the delegates present at the closing session of the NPC.
He said, “We must advance the modernization of national defense and armed forces and build the country’s armed forces into a steel wall that will effectively protect the country’s sovereignty, security and development.”
He called for stronger stability in the once-troubled Hong Kong and reunification with the self-governing island of Taiwan. Beijing sees the island as part of its own territory.
He also said, “People’s trust is the biggest driving force to take me forward and it is also an important responsibility assigned to me.”
Views: 0
