According to Xi Jinping, the "Bullied Era" in China has ended.

Xi Jinping gives an address during the 100th anniversary celebration…get the details..

Thursday, 1st July 2021

At the Chinese Communist Party's centenary celebrations on Thursday, President Xi Jinping praised China's "irreversible" path from colonial humiliation to great-power status, in a speech that reached deep into history to remind patriots at home and rivals abroad of his nation's — and his own — ascendancy.

Xi, speaking from the podium where Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China in 1949, said the "period of China being bullied is gone forever," applauding the party for improving incomes and restoring national dignity.

Xi claimed the party had brought about "national rejuvenation," lifted tens of millions out of poverty, and "altered the landscape of world growth," drawing a line from the Opium Wars' subjugation to the battle to construct a socialist revolution in China.

Xi, who was dressed in a Mao-style jacket, went on to say that the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese country has entered an irreversible historical trajectory" and promised to keep building a "world-class" military to protect national interests.

Mao and a group of Marxist-Leninist thinkers in Shanghai launched the Communist Party in the summer of 1921, and it has since grown into one of the world's most powerful political organisations.

It now has a population of roughly 95 million people, a result of a century of war, hunger, and turbulence, as well as a recent rise to superpower status, pitting it against Western adversaries led by the United States.

Thousands of singers, backed by a marching band, blasted out dramatic anthems such as "We Are the Heirs of Communism" and "There Would Be No New China Without the Communist Party," as maskless invitees shouted and waved flags in a filled Tiananmen Square.

A fly-by of helicopters in formation spelling '100,' with a large hammer and sickle flag trailing behind them, and a 100-gun salute followed, as young communists swore their devotion to the party in unison.

Popularity, power, and purges

Xi, whose speech combined China's economic miracle with the party's longevity, has solidified his eight-year control by establishing a personality cult, abolishing presidential term limits, and refusing to designate a successor.

From Uyghur Muslims and online critics to pro-democracy marches on Hong Kong's streets, he has eliminated opponents and suppressed opposition.

The party has shifted its focus to new issues, including as harnessing technology to re-engage younger generations (12.55 million members are now 30 or younger) and putting a communist finish to a consumer economy dominated by billionaires.

Those willing to speak to foreign journalists on the streets of Beijing were effusive in their admiration for the party.

"We should appreciate the party and the motherland," said Li Luhao, a Beihang University student who performed at the event.

"When I was a kid, there was a one-hour blackout every night and electrical shortages," claimed a 42-year-old man named Wang.

"The streets are now bathed with light. Everything is better: food, clothing, education, and traffic."

While the president did not mention himself in his speech, Willie Lam, a China expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, believes that "most of the credit for China's success belongs to Xi."

Is it time for a party?

In this, the party's 100th year, it has presented a selected version of history through films,'red tourism' campaigns, and publications that dance over the Cultural Revolution's mass brutality, famines, and the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

NDTV