Chinese military officials have talked up the country’s impending take-over of Taiwan as China’s president Xi Jinping hails a “new era” in the world order after meeting with Arab leaders.

The rising Asian superpower has taken another step in its efforts to topple US supremacy in global financial markets, telling Gulf Arab leaders that China will work to buy oil and gas in yuan – a move ostensibly designed to weaken the US dollar’s grip on world trade.

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and China both sent strong messages during Xi’s visit on Friday of “non-interference” at a time when the monarchy’s relationship with the United States has been tested over human rights, energy policy and Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Any move by Saudi Arabia to ditch the US dollar in its oil trade would be a seismic political move, which officials in Riyadh have previously threatened the US with.

At the start of the talks, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman heralded a “historic new phase of relations with China,” a sharp contrast with the awkward US-Saudi meetings five months ago when US President Joe Biden attended a smaller Arab summit.

Meanwhile hours later, Chinese military officials reportedly met to discuss the topic of China’s intended reabsorption of Taiwan, according to the state-owned Global Times.

“Taiwan is China’s Taiwan and no external force has right to interfere,” the outlet tweeted…