China steps up security on North Korea, India and Myanmar borders for Communist Party congress

China’s border police will maintain the highest security on the country’s frontiers with North Korea, India and Myanmar as the Communist Party gears up for its all-important national congress next month. The border forces under the People’s Armed Police. The police said in an online statement, they would also tighten monitoring of coastal areas and ramp up counterterrorism work. Still in a online statement the police said: we will stick to the highest standards, strictest requirements and strongest measures to ensure absolute border security for the party’s 19th national congress”. The congress, expected to start on October 18, is expected to see Xi named the party’s general secretary for a second term and a dozen officials named to key positions. Zhang Baohui, a Chinese politics specialist at Lingnan University, said that although the offshore conflicts were unlikely to pose any real danger to the congress, the police must declare their determination to stamp out risk. Zhang said. “It’s a way to show loyalty” Bayanqolu, party chief of Jilin, which borders North Korea, ordered the province to strengthen “frontline border control” in the run-up to the congress. And said: “we must firmly prevent major incidents that will harm political security and border stability”, he said. “We will take action to show absolute loyalty, pure loyalty to the party and general secretary Xi Jinping”.