President Xi and Communist Party of China
THE Communist Party of China (CPC) has been the sole governing political party of the People’s Republic of China since 1949.
President Xi Jinping honored the eve of 100th anniversary celebrations of the establishment of the CPC. Premier Li Keqiang served as the host of the event
. The CPC was founded in 1921 by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, with the help of the Far Eastern Bureau of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks), which seized power in Russia after the 1917 October Revolution, and the Far Eastern Secretariat of the Communist International.
From 1927 to 1950, the CPC fought a civil war against the Kuomintang’s nationalist government but it temporarily ceased its hostilities in order to form a short-lived alliance with the Kuomintang in order to fight the war against Japan, and in 1949, it emerged victorious when the CPC’s Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China retreated to Taiwan.
National celebrations and rally of 70,000 Chinese took place on great Tiananmen Square in Beijing a grand square I visited many times.
It was attended by CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping, former General Secretary Hu Jintao, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, former Premier Wen Jiabao and members of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party. Hong Kong and Macau Chief Executives Carrie Lam and Ho Iat-seng were also in attendance.
The Chairman Wan Exiang delivered a congratulatory message on behalf of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang and other political parties in China.
The General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered a speech in which he specifically announced the realization of the first goal of the two Centenaries goal set. It concluded with the performance of the international and the ode to the Motherland.
President Xi Jinping hailed China’s irreversible course from humiliated colony to great power at the centenary celebrations for the Chinese Communist Party on July 1, in a speech reaching deep into history to remind patriots at home and rivals abroad of his nation’s – and his own – rise.
Speaking above the giant portrait of Mao Zedong, which dominates Tiananmen Square, from the podium where the famous chairman proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Xi said that the era of China being bullied has gone forever.
Undoubtedly, the party rule has uplifted income of common Chinese and restored national pride.
Xi ‘s speech drew a line from the humiliation of the opium wars to the struggle to establish socialist revolution in China.
The party has brought about national rejuvenation lifting tens of millions from poverty and altered the landscape of world development.
In a gracious manner it was expressed that Chinese would never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress or subjugate them.
On the occasion, President Xi said that those who dare to do that will have their heads bashed bloody against the Great Wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese, a worth great wall which I have visited several times. The phrase became the top trending topic on China’s Twitter-like Weibo.
The tough talk was in response to US and Western efforts to contain and suppress China.
Xi’s stronger-than-usual response would have the effect of invoking even more patriotic and nationalistic sentiments among the Chinese people.
To the world it also surely seems that the era of China being slaughtered and bullied has gone forever. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical course.
In 1921 Mao and a clutch of Marxist-Leninist thinkers in Shanghai founded the party which has since morphed into one of the world’s most powerful political organizations.
It now counts around 95 million members, garnered over a century of war, famine and turmoil, and more recently a surge to superpower status butting up against western rivals, led by the US. President Xi’s speech braided the economic miracle of China with the longevity of the party.
He has cemented his eight-year rule through a personality cult, ending term limits and declining to anoint a successor.
He has purged rivals and crushed dissent – from Uyghur Muslims and critics to pro-democracy protests on Hong Kong’s streets.
Under the dynamic leadership of Xi the party has pivoted to new challenges, using tech to renew its appeal for younger generations – 12.55 million members are now aged 30 or younger – while giving a communist finish to a consumer economy decorated by billionaire entrepreneurs.
Under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, Chinese have come to the society they have today, and developed rapidly.
Today the Chinese thank the party and the motherland. Xi has presented a defiant face to overseas rivals led by the US, reviving up nationalist sentiment and marketing himself as the champion of a new found Chinese pride.
In its 100th year, the party has delivered a selective version of history through films, tourism campaigns and books, which dance over the mass violence of the cultural revolution, famines and the Tiananmen Square student crackdown.
Instead, it has driven attention to China’s rebound from the pandemic, which started in the central city of Wuhan, but has been virtually extinguished inside the country. The July 1, also marked 24th anniversary of the handover of former British colony Hong Kong to China.
To make the country stronger and prosperous Pakistani leaders need to follow clarity, commitment, consistency, devotion, deliberation, honesty and hard work of the Chinese leadership.
—The writer, based in Islamabad, is book ambassador, columnist and author of several books.
