China's ruling Communist Party has approved the formation of an all-powerful security committee to formulate strategies to deal with emerging challenges like terrorism and separatism.
The National Security Committee, being formulated on the lines of the US National Security Council consisting of heads of military, intelligence and top homeland security officials, was announced by the leaders of the Communist Party of China yesterday after a four-day meeting known as the Third Plenum.
"A national security committee will be established to perfect the national security system and national security strategy and safeguard national security," the announcement said.
"The purpose for China to establish the Committee is to improve our national security regime and national security strategy so as to ensure the security of the nation," China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a media briefing here today answering a question on the purpose of such a committee.
"The establishment of security will make forces like terrorism, extremism and separatism nervous," he said replying to a question from a Japanese journalist.
"In general, all those forces who would tend to threaten or sabotage China's national security will feel nervous," said Qin declining to say whether Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be the committee's member.
Replying to a question by the Japanese journalist whether China's decision is related to Japan's plan for a similar council, Qin said: "Your question placed a trap for me... "Are you trying to put Japan in that place?"
The new agency would include representatives from the diplomatic, military, intelligence and commerce agencies, with a view to avoiding the implementation of policies becoming fragmented, the South China Morning Post said.
"Beijing has in recent years moved gradually from a low-key foreign policy approach to a more proactive one. The party leadership that took power under (President) Xi Jinping last November is widely seen as being more assertive, especially in territorial disputes with maritime neighbours such as Japan and the Philippines," it said.
Internally, public discontent over social and economic equality and potential ethnic unrest in Tibet and Xinjiang are considered the main security threats.
