The world can expect a more militarily aggressive China after Xi Jinping secured an unprecedented third term in power, cementing his status as the most powerful Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader since Mao Zedong, the regime’s first ruler, according to analysts.
Xi’s tenure for another five years, and perhaps more, also puts him in the position of leading a military that, for the first time in the Party’s history, poses a real threat to others in the region, they said. But with newly-appointed loyalists in the military who are aging and lack combat experience, Xi also faces deep uncertainty about whether the Party’s military arm, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), can actually win wars with advanced armies.
