Xi Jinping says ‘No’ to bullying at centenary fete
Beijing, Thursday
China’s President Xi Jinping told crowds gathered in Beijing that the era of China being “bullied” was over and that anyone who tried to separate the party and the Chinese people was doomed to fail, as the Chinese Communist Party celebrated its centenary.
Speaking from the balcony above the portrait of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square, Xi spoke for more than an hour of the party’s successes since its founding in Shanghai in 1921.
In a speech brimming with confidence, accompanied by the party’s senior leaders both past and present, he spoke of how the party had freed China from an “exploitative” feudal system, created a “socialist market economy brimming with vitality” and eliminated absolute poverty.
“Only socialism can save China, and only socialism with Chinese characteristics can develop China,” said Xi, who was dressed in a dark grey Mao-style suit.
The Chinese Communist Party defeated the nationalists in the country’s civil war in 1949 and Mao Zedong declared the People’s Republic of China with the goal of lifting people out of crushing poverty.
China is now the world’s second-largest economy and Xi is considered the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.
The celebrations came with Beijing has under pressure over trade – where tensions have risen with countries including the United States and Australia – and its policies in the far western region of Xinjiang, as well as Hong Kong and Tibet.
There are also questions about the COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged in the central city of Wuhan, and continues to cause havoc around the world.
At the head of an increasingly confident party and nation, Xi warned that any attempt to separate the party and the people was “bound to fail”.
While China “welcome[d] friendly suggestions from all around the world”, Xi said the country would not accept “arrogant lectures”.
The loudest rounds of applause and cheering came when Xi said that Chinese people would “no longer allow any alien powers to bully and oppress us”, and that anyone who tried to do so would “be badly battered by the Chinese nation’s perseverance”.
“No one should underestimate the Chinese nation’s will and power to fight against foreign power,” Xi added.
As Xi was delivering his speech in Beijing, social media saw a flurry of celebratory posts.
The landing pages of nearly all social media platforms featured meticulously designed celebratory posters; in WeChat Moments feed, roughly the equivalent of Facebook’s news feed, people posted congratulatory messages and photos, with words such as “happy birthday – our great CCP”; and on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform, the CCP centenary topics swept across the trending topic list, with the topic #CCPTurns100Today garnering more than five billion views.
‘We can do anything!’
The centenary celebrations in Beijing began with a flypast as about 30 military aircraft formed a “100” in the skies above the cheering crowds. There were also trumpets and horns blasting communist songs, and 100-gun salute. - Xinhua
