The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has called for “absolute loyalty” from the military in a speech to leaders of the People’s Liberation Army.

State-owned CCTV devoted a third of its Sunday evening broadcast to the event at which Xi, dressed in the PLA uniform, shook hands with officers and received a standing ovation.

“Strengthening the party’s leadership in the army is necessary for making China and its army powerful. The party’s absolute leadership of the army should be insisted on,” he said, according to CCTV. “We must … cast the ideological foundation of the army’s absolute loyalty to the party.”

Since taking office in 2012, Xi has amassed more control over the military than almost any predecessor who also held a position as chairman of the central military commission, or head of the Chinese military.

Yet, his insistence on loyalty may indicate a level of insecurity. Xi’s speech at a conference of the military commission comes amid a flurry of rumours and reports of criticism within China’s political class and intellectual circles over his handling of the economy, domestic health scandals, and a trade war with the US.

Adam Ni, a China researcher and visiting fellow at the Australian National University, said: “The PLA is the final backstop to any political backlash that Xi may confront in presenting himself as absolute leader. In the end, those critical voices can only go so far because he has control of the gun.”

Sunday’s speech was Xi’s first public appearance since the end of the secretive annual summer retreat of China’s most influential leaders in the seaside town of Beidaihe.

Ni said: “The fact that he has to keep having these campaigns means he is encountering certain resistance within the military, that he’s feeling insecure, that he’s paranoid about his position … so he has to keep super-vigilant.”

One of China’s most powerful organs, the PLA is coming under tighter control by the party. Under Xi’s tenure, both high and lower level military cadres have been replaced by those seen as more loyal to him. He has reduced the size of the military commission from 11 to seven members, concentrating power in a smaller group. And as of this month, the military has begun implementing the party’s internal disciplinary regulations over its own protocols.

The regulations govern everything from how PLA soldiers use their mobile phones to their behaviour online. All social media accounts of PLA soldiers must be registered with the authorities. Xi’s presence has also been increasingly visible in military parades, exercises, and events such as Sunday’s.

“Xi is trying to assert control in an attempt to make sure the party has 100% control of the PLA, far more than any time in the past,” Ni said. “Just as the line between the party and the state has increasingly been blurred, that’s also happening in the military.”