Xi Jinping hits out at US as he urges China’s private firms to ‘fight’ alongside Communist Party

China’s leader Xi Jinping hit out at the United States with unusually direct comments as he called on the country’s private companies to “fight” alongside the Communist Party at a time of mounting challenges at home and abroad. “[In the past five years,] Western countries led by the United States have contained and suppressed us in an all-round way, which has brought unprecedented severe challenges to our development,” Xi told a group of government advisers representing private businesses during an annual legislative meeting in Beijing on Monday.

China’s top leader usually avoids directly attacking the US in public even as relations between Beijing and Washington have deteriorated sharply in recent years. He generally refers only to “Western countries” or “some developed nations” when making critical comments about Washington.

Speaking to business delegates from a top political advisory body, Xi expressed concerns about external and economic challenges facing the country, while urging Chinese people to “unite as one.”

“In the coming period, the risks and challenges we face will only increase and become more severe. Only when all of the people think in one place, work hard in one place … can we continue to win new battles,” he said, according to a readout published by state-run Xinhua news agency. “We are in the same boat.”

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