• India needs to be wary of Chinese President’s absolute power

In an inevitable outcome, Xi Jinping has been ‘unanimously elected’ Chinese President for a historic third term. This makes him the country’s longest-serving leader since the Chinese republic’s founding father Mao Zedong and paves the way for his lifelong rule. Around 3,000 members of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, voted for him in an apology for an election that had no other candidate. Xi has also been re-elected Chairman of the Central Military Commission, thus ensuring his continuation as the head of the People’s Liberation Army, the largest military in the world.

Xi has consolidated his hold on China amid increasingly strained relations with the US and the West over Taiwan and the Ukraine war and far-from-friendly ties with India in the backdrop of the lingering Ladakh standoff. The 7.2 per cent hike in the military budget makes it obvious that there will be no let-up in China’s muscle-flexing, even as the world’s second-largest economy faces the uphill task of making a robust recovery from the upheaval caused by the draconian zero-Covid policy in the past three years. Striking a balance between military augmentation and economic revival will be a major challenge for the Chinese President.

India needs to be wary of Xi’s absolute power. The latest report by the US intelligence community states that China will continue its efforts to achieve his vision of making the country emerge as a ‘major power’ globally by undermining US influence. Xi is keen on ‘the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation’ by 2049, the centenary year of the people’s republic. The two neighbors have held a series of talks in recent years in connection with the border stalemate, but China has not done enough to reduce the trust deficit as well as hostilities. With Xi more firmly in the saddle, China won’t hesitate from making provocative moves in retaliation for the growing closeness between India and the US. While keeping all communication channels open, New Delhi needs to be well prepared — militarily as well as diplomatically — for any eventuality.

(Tribune, India)