China’s newly established National Security Commission headed by President Xi Jinping held its first meeting, drawing up plans to build an integrated command structure to deal with rising threats of terrorism and deepening disputes with neighbours.
“China now faces the most complicated situation it ever has, internally and externally,” Xi said on Tuesday, presiding over the first meeting of the NSC, which was modelled on the lines of its American counterpart.
The NSC is expected to be the principal forum to advise Xi, who holds the most powerful posts of chief of ruling Communist Party, Presidency and the head of the military. Premier li Keqiang and head of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Zhang Dejiang were the only other two members of the leadership and rest of its composition is not known.
Formulated earlier this year, the NSC was set up after the March 1 Kunming railway station knife attack by alleged militants from Xinjiang in which 33 people were killed and 143 injured.
In his address, Xi called on the NSC to explore a “national security path with Chinese characteristics” apparently advising the officials not to make it a copycat model of its US counterpart. Xi said that in order to implement the overall national security outlook, China must prioritise external and internal security.