BEIJING – Chinese state media unveiled a new title for President Xi Jinping calling him “commander in chief” of the country’s new joint forces battle command centre, as he seeks to consolidate power over the military.

State-run Xinhua news agency and state broadcaster CCTV both carried reports in English and Chinese referring to Xi by the new description for the first time after he visited the command centre on Wednesday.

As well as president, Xi is general secretary of the Communist Party – the position from which he derives his power – and also chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Since taking office Xi has sought to increase his authority over the People’s Liberation Army, which is technically the armed force of the Communist Party rather than the Chinese state.

Some of its top officers have been among those who have fallen in his much-publicised anti-corruption drive.

The military should be “absolutely loyal”, he said during his visit, the official news agency Xinhua reported.

Under Xi, China has taken a more assertive foreign policy stance, rapidly building up artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea and regularly sailing vessels into waters around Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, raising fears of clashes.

The military should be “resourceful in fighting, efficient in commanding and courageous and capable of winning wars”, Xi said.

The joint command system should be efficient and active in both peace and war, Xinhua paraphrased him as adding.

Xi donned fatigues for what appeared to be the first time for the visit, although his garb did not carry any rank insignia. He has generally worn a plain black uniform for formal military occasions such as a giant parade in Beijing last year.

The command centre was established as part of a major reshuffle of China’s military structure, which also included the creation of a Rocket Force to operate its missiles.

When the changes were unveiled in January Xi described them as “a major policy decision to realise the Chinese dream of a strong army”, state media reported.

Beijing has been building up its military for years, with regular double-digit increases in its official budget.

It has invested in an expanded fleet of submarines and its first indigenous aircraft carrier, as it seeks to build a navy capable of projecting power abroad.

Xi has announced plans to slash China’s troop numbers by 300,000 to roughly two million to craft a more efficient fighting force.

WASHINGTON – Satellite images show that North Korea may have resumed tunnel excavation at its main nuclear test site, similar to activity seen before the country’s most recent nuclear test in January, a US North Korea monitoring website reported on Wednesday.

The 38 North website, run by the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, said such activity could be carried out as part of preparations for a nuclear test, as was the case in January, or to conceal such preparations.

It said commercial satellite images of the West Portal of the Punggye-ri test site taken on Tuesday showed two small ore carts on a track crossing a road from a tunnel entrance. “The presence of the two carts … and the absence of any notable changes in the spoil pile suggests that tunnel excavation operations are about to resume, or have recently resumed, for the first time this year,” the 38 North report said.

The report said the images also showed limited movement of vehicles and equipment at the site’s North Portal, where the past three North Korean nuclear tests took place, compared to images taken on April 14.

“These activities by themselves do not establish that test preparations are imminent. However, the possibility of an impending test cannot be ruled out,” the report said. “Pyongyang has clearly demonstrated, with its fourth nuclear detonation this past January, the ability to conduct detonations on short notice while masking indicators of its preparations from satellite view.”

A South Korean official declined to comment on any new intelligence reports of activities at the site but said the military was on high alert over the possibility that the North could conduct a nuclear test at any time.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in March that his country has miniaturised a nuclear warhead and ordered tests of a nuclear warhead and ballistic missiles in defiance of UN sanctions.

38 North reported in early December that satellite photographs from the two previous months indicated North Korea was digging a new tunnel for nuclear testing.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and has vowed to conduct more, despite the stepped up international sanctions.

Some experts expect North Korea to conduct a fifth nuclear test before a ruling party congress in early May, following an embarrassing failure in the test of an intermediate-range missile last week.

The top US diplomat for the Asia-Pacific region warned on Tuesday that a fifth North Korean nuclear test could trigger new sanctions including an effort to choke off hard currency earnings by its workers abroad.

MANILA – Trash-talking Philippine presidential favourite Rodrigo Duterte has warned he is prepared to cut diplomatic ties with the United States and Australia after their ambassadors criticised his joke about the jailhouse rape of a missionary.

Duterte also told the ambassadors to “shut their mouths”, as controversy continued to rage over his comments in which he said he wanted to have been the first to rape the Australian woman who was brutalised and murdered in a 1989 prison riot.

“If I become president, go ahead and sever it (diplomatic ties),” Duterte, 71, said on the campaign trial on Wednesday night, referring to the relationships with the United States and Australia, two of the Philippines’ closest allies.

Duterte, who while campaigning has called the pope a “son of a b****” and promised to kill thousands of criminals, recounted at a recent rally the riot events as part of his tough-on-crime pitch to voters.

“They raped all of the women… there was this Australian lay minister… when they took them out… I saw her face and I thought, ‘Son of a b****. What a pity… they raped her, they all lined up,” he told the crowd.

“I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first.” Duterte was at the time mayor of Davao, a major city in the southern Philippines where he is accused of running vigilante death squads that have allegedly killed more than 1,000 people.

The front runner has at times on the campaign boasted about running the death squads, claiming they killed 1,700 people, but also denied any links to them.

Duterte has similarly offered varying responses to the rape comments, with his media team releasing a statement in which he apologised. But on the campaign trail, he has repeatedly told reporters he would not apologise.

Australian ambassador Amanda Gorely criticised his remarks saying in a statement on Twitter: “Rape and murder should never be joked about or trivialised. Violence against women and girls is unacceptable anytime, anywhere.”

US ambassador Philip Goldberg later agreed with her, saying in a television interview that “statements by anyone, anywhere that either degrade women or trivialise issues so serious as rape or murder are not ones that we condone.”

“It would do well with the American ambassador and the Australian ambassador to shut their mouths,” Duterte said in reaction.

The US embassy did not have an immediate response to Duterte’s remarks while the Australian embassy could not be contacted for comment.