100 years of Chinese communism

The story: The Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrated 100 years of its existence on first of July, 2021. It was on this day a hundred years ago, th

100 years of Chinese communism

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• The story: The Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrated 100 years of its existence on first of July, 2021. It was on this day a hundred years ago, that the small group of people brought the Party into existence. No one would have imagined it to be so huge and powerful one day.
• Celebrations: The Party started its celebrations with a 100-gun salute as thousands of performers assembled on Tiananmen Square, the same place where thousands of pro-democracy protestors were killed in cold blood by the Party's own army (the PLA) in June 1989. Coronavirus precautions were understated for an outdoor event drawing many thousands of people to Tiananmen Square. The folding yellow and orange chairs in the main area of the square were not quite socially distanced, but still separated: 15 inches in between each chair.

1. President Xi Jinping, who has solidified the Party's unimaginable reach in people lives in all possible ways, said that “For 100 years, the Chinese Communist Party has led in the Chinese people in every struggle, every sacrifice, every innovation, in sum, around one theme — achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
2. Slogan given to all was - “Listen to the party, be grateful to the party, and follow the party,” they shouted. “Let the party rest assured, I’m with the strong country!”

• No military parade on 01st July 2021: The first round of festivities did not include a military parade like the one in 2019 that celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), but the military provided a backdrop. Squadrons of helicopters flew over, carrying red banners and forming the figure 100, followed by fighter jets, including the country’s most advanced fighter jet, the J-20. The seated crowd extended only about three-quarters of the distance from the Forbidden City’s entrance gate, with Mao’s portrait back to the monolith in the heart of the square. But for the Communist Party’s elite, red chairs were mounted on viewing stands at the front of the square..
• Xi's message to the world: Xi told the audience on Tiananmen Square that the party was the only force capable of ensuring the country’s rise. He also issued a rousing warning against any foe that stood in the way. He said the party’s continued rule was essential to ensuring that China stayed on course to becoming a wealthy and advanced world power. In an interesting note, he said that the Chinese people have never bullied, oppressed or enslaved the peoples of other countries, not in the past, not now and not in the future. (This would sound like a joke to the persecuted Uighur minorities of Xinjiang, for sure, struggling to escape "training or re-education camps" which are basically concentration camps or jails.) Xi also said that the Chinese people will never allow foreign forces to bully, oppress or enslave us, and anyone who nurses delusions of doing that will crack their heads and spill blood on the Great Wall of steel built from the flesh and blood of 1.4 billion Chinese people.
• China's global role: China, as per Xi, a force for peace in the world and wanted peaceful unification with Taiwan, the self-governed, democratically run island that Beijing claims as its territory since 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek ran away from the mainland. Xi warned against what he called “schemes” to achieve full independence for Taiwan.

1. In Hong Kong, the mood has totally changed. July 1 is both the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese control and the 100th anniversary of the founding of China’s ruling Communist Party. And just in 2020 (late on June 30, 2020) China had imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong. In the year since the security law came into effect, many of the city’s most prominent opposition politicians have been arrested, with dozens still held in jail. The electoral system was transformed, with directly elected seats cut and security agencies given vast power to vet candidates. Apple Daily, the city’s largest pro-democracy newspaper, was forced to close, and RTHK, the once proudly independent public broadcaster, has been gutted. The Chinese Communist Party is now remaking this city, permeating its once vibrant, irreverent character with ever more overt signs of its authoritarian will. The very texture of daily life is under assault as Beijing molds Hong Kong into something more familiar, more docile.
2. On Taiwan, Xi said that solving the Taiwan question and realizing the complete reunification of the motherland are the unswerving historical tasks of the Chinese Communist Party and the common aspiration of all Chinese people. But Taiwan retorted saying "“Democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law are the core values ​​of Taiwan’s society,” the statement read. “There is a major systemic difference with the dictatorship on the other side of the strait.” Beijing has claimed the self-governed island as its own territory since 1949, when the army of the Kuomintang, or Chinese nationalists, fled to Taiwan after losing to Mao Zedong’s Red Army in a bitter civil war. In recent years, Mr. Xi has made it clear in speeches that unification by force remains on the table, though he has not laid out a definitive timeline.

• About Xi Jinping: The supreme leader of China has concentrated power since 2012 like no other leader before him.

1. Since becoming general secretary of the Communist Party in late 2012, Xi Jinping, 68, has made it increasingly clear that he sees himself as a transformative leader — in the footsteps of Mao and Deng — guiding China into a new era of global strength and rejuvenated one-party rule. He surely presides over an economy and a military much stronger than in their times.
2. He was born into a revolutionary family, endured the upheavals of Mao Zedong’s era, and began his career as a party official when Deng Xiaoping and other leaders opened up market reforms. Before Mr. Xi came to power, many in China thought that he would be a milder figure, because his father, Xi Zhongxun, was a revolutionary veteran who in the early 1980s oversaw the beginnings of market reforms in Guangdong Province.
3. Xi Zhongxun had suffered decades of confinement and persecution after Mao turned against him, and his family was torn apart during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Like millions of other youths at that time, the younger Mr. Xi was sent to labor in the countryside, and he spent seven years in a dusty village in northwest China.
4. In 2018, he abolished the two-term limit on the Chinese presidency, opening the way to remain in office — as president, party leader and chairman of the Chinese military — for many years to come. His next big step in that journey will be in 2022, when a Communist Party congress appears likely to acclaim him for a third term as party leader.

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