Xi Jingping

Amid Indo-China face off in Eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Chinese President Xi Jinping has reportedly asked the PLA troops to prepare for war.

President Xi Jinping visited a military base in Guangdong on Tuesday, when he asked the Chinese troops to “put all (their) minds and energy on preparing for war and maintain a state of high alert”, CNN reported.

However, it was not yet clear whether this comment was directed towards India or the US and other countries with which China is embroiled in a tussle in the South China Sea region, or to both.

In his address at the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Marine Corps, Xi Jinping asked the troops to “maintain a state of high alert” besides telling them to be “absolutely loyal, absolutely pure, and absolutely reliable”.

According to Xinhua news agency, Xi Jinping emphasised on “speeding up the transformation and construction, speeding up the improvement of combat capabilities, and striving to forge a strong force with multiple capabilities and rapid response across the field”.

“Xi Jinping emphasised that it is necessary to uphold the party’s absolute leadership over the militarypay close attention to comprehensively and strictly govern the party and the militaryand ensure that the troops are absolutely loyal, absolutely pure, and absolutely reliable,” Xinhua quoted Xi as saying.

On Tuesday, India and China held their seventh round of Corps Commanders-level talks to resolve military standoff in Ladakh region.

The faceoff began in early May and has continued since then.

India and China have held several rounds of military, diplomatic and ministerial-level talks to defuse the ongoing military tension but without much success.