China’s Xi Jinping vows to make army ‘nice wall of metal’ in first speech of recent presidential time period

China's Xi Jinping vows to make military 'great wall of steel' in first speech of new presidential term

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CNN
 — 

China’s leader Xi Jinping on Monday vowed to bolster national security and build the military into a “great wall of steel,” in the first speech of his precedent-breaking third term as president.

Speaking at the closing of the annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, Xi underscored the need to comprehensively modernize national defense and the military.

“(We must) build the People’s Liberation Army into a great wall of steel that effectively safeguards national sovereignty, security, and development interests,” Xi told the nearly 3,000 delegates of the National People’s Congress (NPC).

Xi, 69, was unanimously endorsed by the NPC as China’s president for another five years in a choreographed and ceremonial vote Friday, making him the longest-serving head of state of Communist China since its founding in 1949.

At the start of his…

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