CHINA has ordered its military to be ready for war as it removed the word "peaceful" from a key government document amid global tensions.
President Xi Jinping has said the Chinese army needs to step up preparing for war as he spoke on the sidelines of the National People's Congress.
His comments came as Beijing sliced out references to "peaceful reunification" with Taiwan from its annual government report – with the description having been present since 2013.
And meanwhile, China is reportedly set to deploy its two new aircraft carriers off the coast of the island which split from the mainland in 1949.
The flurry of activity has set alarm bells ringing as it may signal a more aggressive foreign policy from Beijing amid fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
Tensions remain high between the US and China over the outbreak – with US President Donald Trump's administration pouring blame on the Communist Party.
Feuding also continues amid ongoing disputes over territories in the South China Sea as China's foreign minister warned of a "new Cold War".
Speaking about upping combat readiness for his forces, Mr Xi ordered them to prepare for the "worst case scenarios", reports state-run news agency Xinhua.
He said: "It is necessary to explore ways of training and preparing for war because epidemic control efforts have been normalised.
"It is necessary to step up preparations for armed combat, to flexibly carry out actual combat military training, and to improve our military’s ability to perform military missions."
The People’s Liberation Army navy’s aircraft carriers Liaoning and Shandong have been carrying out war games the tightly controlled Bohai Bay.
It is feared China will point both of the massive warships as weapons against Taiwan following the apparent shift from "peaceful" policies.
Addressing the telling omission of two key words, Chinese state media said it caused caused “Taiwan separatists and foreign forces” to “become panicked and nervous”.
The Global Times – the newspaper of the ruling Communist Party, which has a circulation of 1.5million – wrote that it shows China is "determined" to take back Taiwan.
However, it added this does not mean "peaceful" options are completely off the table.
China has repeatedly slammed Taiwan's government, accusing President Tsai Ing Wen of being a "separatist" as she believes the island is already an independent nation.
Beijing has previously threatened Taiwan with force, and have reportedly been stepping up invasion war games.
China has vowed to reclaim the island by 2050 – branding it a "renegade state".
Across state controlled media, there are reports of a “groundswell” of public support erupting in China for a military invasion of Taiwan.
China's foreign minister Wang Yi has also accused the US of being "infected by a "political virus" compelling figures there to continually attack China.
Mr Wang said: "It has come to our attention that some political forces in the US are taking China-US relations hostage and pushing our two countries to the brink of a new Cold War."
China has been accused of attempting to cover up the early days of the outbreak, potentially dooming the world to a pandemic.
President Trump has continued to fuel a theory that the virus may have originated from a lab, while other global powers also believe China has questions to answer over Covid-19.
Meanwhile, an internal Chinese report also warned Beijing should be should be prepared for an armed confrontation with the US.
The report was drawn up by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of State Security, China’s top intelligence body.
Relations between China and the US are believed to be at their worst point in decades.
The Global Times also published a fiery editorial calling for a tripling of China's nuclear arsenal to fend off the "warmongering" US earlier this month.
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