Testimony before US-China Commission: China’s Stockpiling and Mobilization Measures for Competition and Conflict

Published June 13, 2024

This testimony was given before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission on “China’s Stockpiling and Mobilization Measures for Competition and Conflict” by Manoj Kewalramani, Fellow-China Studies & Chair Indo-Pacific Studies Programme. Click here for the full recording of the hearing.

An assessment of speeches by senior leaders, official media discourse, analytical writing and government policies indicate a significant revision in the Chinese leadership’s view on internal and external security risks and challenges under Xi Jinping. Since the 2008 financial crisis, Chinese scholars and leadership have argued that great changes have been afoot in the international order. This idea has been encapsulated in the phrase “profound changes unseen in a century” (百年未有的大变局).

Soon after Xi Jinping took charge as General Secretary, this idea became embedded in the Party’s official discourse. For instance, barely two months after taking over as Foreign Minister in March 2013, Wang Yi told a forum at Tsinghua University that the world was “undergoing changes as never seen before.” This, he concluded, demanded that China engage in “major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics.” A year later, at the Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs in November 2014, Xi Jinping told the gathered officials that China’s “relations with the rest of the world are going through profound changes.” He assessed that “all factors considered, we can see that China is still in an important period of strategic opportunity for its development endeavor in which much can be accomplished. Our biggest opportunity lies in China’s steady development and the growth in its strength. On the other hand, we should be mindful of various risks and challenges and skillfully defuse potential crises and turn them into opportunities for China’s development.

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