China's Xi Calls for 'More Quickly Elevating' Armed Forces

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the People's Armed Police Force during the first session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (Li Gang/Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the People's Armed Police Force during the first session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (Li Gang/Xinhua via AP)
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China's Xi Calls for 'More Quickly Elevating' Armed Forces

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the People's Armed Police Force during the first session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (Li Gang/Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the People's Armed Police Force during the first session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (Li Gang/Xinhua via AP)

China’s leader Xi Jinping has called for “more quickly elevating the armed forces to world-class standards,” in a speech days after he warned the country was threatened by a US-led campaign of “containment, encirclement and suppression of China.”

China must maximize its “national strategic capabilities” in a bid to “systematically upgrade the country’s overall strength to cope with strategic risks, safeguard strategic interests and realize strategic objectives,” Xi said Wednesday according to The Associated Press.

His remarks to delegates in the ceremonial parliament representing the People's Liberation Army, the military wing of the ruling Communist Party, and the paramilitary People's Armed Police, were carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Xi made a series of calls to accelerate the build-up of self-reliance in science and technology, bolster strategic capabilities in emergency fields, make industrial and supply chains more resilient and make national reserves “more capable of safeguarding national security.”

The program laid out by Xi dovetails with a number of national strategies already underway, including the “Made in China 2025” campaign to make China dominant in 10 key fields from integrated circuits to aerospace, and a decades-old campaign for civilian-military integration in the economy.

Xi also mentioned the need for “achieving the goals for the centenary of the PLA in 2027,” a date by which, according to some US observers, China intends to have the capability of conquering self-governing Taiwan, an American ally, by military means.

China has defined the centenary goals in mostly vague terms, such as greater "informatization" and raising the PLA to “world-class standards."

China needs to build “a strong system of strategic deterrent forces, raise the presence of combat forces in new domains and of new qualities, and deeply promote combat-oriented military training,” according to a speech Xi gave last year.

China’s defense budget has roughly doubled over the past decade, allowing it to maintain the world’s largest standing military, with 2 million members, the world’s largest navy by number of ships, and the largest missile and aviation forces in the Indo-Pacific.

His most recent comment came after a speech Monday to delegates attending the annual session of the rubber-stamp National People's Congress, that indicated Chinese frustration with US restrictions on access to technology and its support for Taiwan and regional military blocs in unusually blunt terms.

“Western countries led by the United States have implemented all-round containment, encirclement and suppression of China, which has brought unprecedented grave challenges to our nation’s development,” Xi was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.

A State Department spokesperson, Ned Price, responded by saying Washington wants to “coexist responsibly” within the global trade and political system and has no intention of suppressing China.

“This is not about containing China. This is not about suppressing China. This is not about holding China back,” Price said in Washington. “We want to have that constructive competition that is fair” and “doesn’t veer into that conflict.”



Ukrainian Attack on Beach in Russia’s Kursk Kills Three, Regional Governor Says

 A military car drives on a road under anti-drone nets installed by Ukrainian servicemen at an undisclosed location in the eastern Donetsk region on July 8, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
A military car drives on a road under anti-drone nets installed by Ukrainian servicemen at an undisclosed location in the eastern Donetsk region on July 8, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
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Ukrainian Attack on Beach in Russia’s Kursk Kills Three, Regional Governor Says

 A military car drives on a road under anti-drone nets installed by Ukrainian servicemen at an undisclosed location in the eastern Donetsk region on July 8, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
A military car drives on a road under anti-drone nets installed by Ukrainian servicemen at an undisclosed location in the eastern Donetsk region on July 8, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)

A Ukrainian drone attack on a beach in the Russian city of Kursk killed three people, including a Russian serviceman engaged in rescue operations, and injured seven, acting regional Governor Alexander Khinshtein said early on Wednesday. 

Khinshtein, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the attack had been carried out deliberately in an area frequented by families in the region that borders Ukraine. 

Five of the seven injured, including a 5-year-old child, were in a serious condition in hospital. 

He said one of the dead was a member of Russia's National Guard who had been trying to evacuate people from the scene. 

"He had arrived at the beach with his comrades after people began reporting about the drone attack," Khinshtein said. "The senior sergeant had begun to evacuate people when a second explosion occurred. Unfortunately, he did not survive." 

Reuters could not independently verify the account and there was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials. 

Khinshtein also said a Ukrainian drone had attacked a hospital in the town of Rylsk, closer to the Ukrainian border than the city of Kursk, injuring two people, blowing out windows and setting a roof ablaze. 

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of targeting civilians in the course of the war, now well into its fourth year, something that both sides deny. 

Ukrainian forces staged a large incursion into the Kursk region nearly a year ago. The Kremlin has said all Kyiv's forces have since been ejected from the region, but Ukrainian officials say their troops are still carrying out operations there.