Chinese President Xi Jinping used a Lunar New Year greeting to troops to highlight a People's Liberation Army cyberspace unit stationed on Fiery Cross Reef in the disputed South China Sea, according to footage described by state-linked reporting and an account published Wednesday by Breitbart.
Xi delivered the holiday message by video link from Beijing and spoke with representatives of several PLA units, according to China's state news agency Xinhua.
In the segment described by the South China Morning Post, state broadcaster CCTV footage showed a section of the PLA Cyberspace Force on Fiery Cross Reef, where the unit's section chief told Xi, "We shall remain constantly ready for action, resolutely safeguarding our nation's outpost in the South China Sea."
Xi replied: "Fulfill your assigned duties well, particularly to ensure the coordinated management of soldiers' work and living conditions."
The Cyberspace Force is one of several newer PLA arms created under a restructuring announced in April 2024, when a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson described the cyberspace force as important for "national cyber border defense" and countering network intrusions, according to Xinhua.
The new cyberspace, aerospace, and information support forces later debuted publicly in a Sept. 3, 2025, military parade in Beijing, according to Xinhua, which also reported that China displayed "cyberspace warfare equipment" during the event.
Fiery Cross Reef is in the Spratly Islands, where China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Taiwan have overlapping claims; China occupies Fiery Cross, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative's island tracker.
A 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling in a case brought by the Philippines rejected China's claims to historic rights within the so-called nine-dash line as incompatible with the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea and found China's island-building caused "severe harm to the coral reef environment," according to the Permanent Court of Arbitration's press release and the tribunal's award.
In December, AMTI reported upgrades at Fiery Cross and other major outposts that it said support intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations and could allow China to "contest the use of the electromagnetic spectrum by others in the event of a conflict."
AMTI and the Center for Advanced Defense Studies have also documented China's use of a maritime militia, described as fishing vessels operating alongside Chinese state forces to advance Beijing's objectives in disputed waters.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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