Speaking in front of 7,000 PLA troops in northern China and dressed in military garb, the Chinese leader urged personnel to "create an elite and powerful force that is always ready for the fight, capable of combat and sure to win in order to fulfill the tasks bestowed by the Party and the people in the new era," the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.
Troops at 4,000 bases across the country tuned in to listen to Xi address the military as a whole. The event marked the first time the Central Military Commission held "a mobilization meeting for the whole armed forces," according to Xinhua.
The Chinese president called on the military to increase digitized warfare research and databases, get more creative with implementing military doctrines and improve science education among PLA troops.
"Our military has always fought with a great spirit. In the past, we had more spirit than steel. Now we have plenty of equipment, so we need an even tougher and stronger spirit to wield it," Xi said, according to the China Daily.
Over the past 12 months, China has opened its first foreign naval base, on the Horn of Africa, finished the construction of one aircraft carrier and initiated construction of two more, commissioned the fifth-generation stealth J-20 jet, and moved forward with plans to open a second foreign naval base in Gwadar, Pakistan.
Beijing presided over the creation of more than 290,000 square meters of new facilities on islands in the South China Sea in 2017. Satellite images have shown that the islands now feature new munitions depots, military shelters, sensor arrays and radar systems.
One issue Beijing perceives with particular sensitivity is Taiwan. After US reports emerged that a US Navy aircraft carrier would be visiting Taiwan in 2018, Li Kexin, a minister with the Chinese Embassy to the US, stated, "the day that a US Navy vessel arrives in Kaohsiung [a major port city in Taiwan] our People's Liberation Army unifies Taiwan with military force."