Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Friday that Beijing will not shy away from conflict, soon after President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger former Vice President Joe Biden sought to convince Americans they would both stand up to China over the next four years.
Xi made the remarks in a speech in Beijing marking the 70th anniversary of the Korean War, in which China intervened on behalf of North Korea and fought against America, South Korean and assorted United Nations forces.
Xi—who in recent years has centralized power, dissolved term limits and become the most influential Chinese leader since Mao Zedong—said in a fiercely nationalistic address at the Great Hall of the People that China is ready for conflict and that global efforts to contain Beijing would fail.
“Seventy years ago, the imperialist invaders fired upon the doorstep of a new China,” Xi said, according to The South China Morning Post. “The Chinese people understood that you must use the language that invaders can understand—to fight war with war and to stop an invasion with force, earning peace and respect through victory.”
www.newsweek.com/xi-jinping-china-ready-war-trump-biden-take-hard-line-beijing-1541606