The Chinese Communist Party, which is tightly controlled, celebrates its centenary

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BEIJING (Associated Press) – Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a rally Thursday to commemorate anyone trying to face “broken heads and bloodshed in front of China’s 1.4 billion Iron Great Wall.” Centenary of the ruling Communist Party.

Wearing a gray button-down suit of the kind worn by Mao Zedong, Xi spoke from the balcony of the Tiananmen Gate, stressing the party’s role in bringing China to world prominence, saying that it will never be separated from the people.

Xi, who is also the party chief and leader of the armed forces, said China had restored order in Hong Kong after anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous city in 2019, and reiterated Beijing’s determination to bring the autonomous Taiwan under its control.

However, he received the biggest applause when he described the party as the force that restored China’s dignity after it came to power amid a civil war in 1949.

“Chinese people have strong pride and self-confidence,” Xi said. “We have not bullied, persecuted, or enslaved the people of another nation, neither in the past, nor in the present, or in the future.”

“At the same time, the Chinese people will never allow any foreign power to bully, oppress or enslave us, and anyone who tries to do so will face broken heads and bloodshed in front of the Great Iron Wall of 1.4 billion Chinese,” Xi said.

Xi did not say what those forces were, but China is embroiled in a deepening rivalry with the United States for the center of global power and has clashed with India along their disputed border. China also claims that the uninhabited islands are under the control of Japan and almost the entire South China Sea, and threatens to invade Taiwan, with which the United States has strengthened relations and military sales.

Xi said the party will retain absolute control of its military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, which now has the second largest annual budget in the world after the US armed forces, and add new, advanced aircraft carriers and aircraft, displayed in an overpass at the start of the ceremony, which includes a squadron of Chinese stealth fighters. J-20.

Events are held across the country, including in Hong Kong, which simultaneously commemorates the 1997 handover from British to Chinese control.

China has cracked down on freedom of expression and political dissent in the territory, while rejecting all outside criticism and sanctions against its leaders.

Thursday’s events are the culmination of weeks of celebrations and parades praising the party’s role of nearly 92 million members in bringing about significant improvements in the quality of life at home and restoring China’s economic, political and military influence abroad.

While the progress is mainly due to the economic reforms enacted by Deng Xiaoping four decades ago, the celebrations highlight the role of Xi, who has positioned himself as China’s most powerful leader since Mao.

Xi, 68, has lifted restrictions on his time in office. He is expected to begin a third five-year term as party leader next year.

While Mao and other former leaders have emerged, the centenary celebrations appear designed to polish Xi’s credentials as having made major breakthroughs in poverty alleviation and economic progress while raising China’s global standing and standing up to the West.

Seeking to reap more gains for the party on the world stage, said Robert Sutter of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, China is setting up a long-running conflict with the United States.

“In foreign affairs, it involves the growth of wealth and power, with no burdens for China as it pursues its self-centered policy goals at the expense of others and the prevailing world order,” Sutter said.

While the party does not face serious challenges to its rule, the legitimacy of its rule has been undermined by past disasters such as the mass famine of the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s and early 1969, violent class war and xenophobia in 1966. 76 Cultural Revolution, and bloody suppression of the pro-democracy movement Centered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989.

Recently, China has been criticized and sanctioned for detaining more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities for their political re-education in the northwest region of Xinjiang, and for imprisoning or intimidating them to silence their voices, whom it considers potential opponents from Tibet to Hong Kong. .

The party’s official narrative sheds light on past mistakes or current disagreements, emphasizing development, stability and efficiency – including its success in controlling COVID-19 at home – as opposed to what it portrays as political bickering, failures in anti-epidemic measures and social conflict in a plurality parties. democracies.

John Tyful Dreyer, an expert at China’s University of Miami, said the party’s determination to delete the mention of past shortcomings shows it may not be as confident in its legitimacy to govern as it expects.

“What are they afraid of? In short, could that huge, self-administered pat on the back be a sign of a deeper insecurity?” said Tyvol Dreyer.

While Mao advocated abandoning or completely destroying traditional culture, religion, classes and social mores, the party now downplays its revolutionary history and “defines itself as representing all that is good in Chinese tradition,” said Harvard Kennedy University’s Anthony Seich. School.

“The ceremonies will try to legitimize Xi as the obvious natural heir of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, etc., and pave the way for next year’s Party Congress.

“It will enhance a sense of national pride in his accomplishments, which constitute an important source of legitimacy in the current era.”

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