[The speech comes as Xi’s China
finds itself locked in an intensifying rivalry with the United States and
facing pushback against its assertive actions in the region and beyond. In a
blunt message to Taiwan and its allies, Xi underscored China’s commitment to
one day unify the island under Beijing’s control and vowed “resolute action”
against any efforts toward what he called “Taiwan independence.”]
By David Crawshaw
and Alicia Chen
In a speech to thousands of people
in Beijing to mark 100 years since the Communist Party’s founding,
President Xi Jinping struck a defiant tone as he hailed the “great rejuvenation
of the Chinese nation” under the party’s guidance. He declared that the party
had achieved its centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society and
solved the problem of absolute poverty, adding that nothing could divide the
party and the nation.
The speech comes as Xi’s China
finds itself locked in an intensifying rivalry with the United States and
facing pushback against its assertive actions in the region and beyond. In a
blunt message to Taiwan and its allies, Xi underscored China’s commitment to
one day unify the island under Beijing’s control and vowed “resolute action”
against any efforts toward what he called “Taiwan independence.”
At the same time, Beijing has faced
escalating criticism over its human rights abuses, especially against Uyghur Muslims in its far-western
Xinjiang region, and its dismantling of freedoms in Hong Kong. A
Pew Research Center survey published this week revealed
overwhelmingly unfavorable opinions of China among developed countries.
[China
marks Communist Party centenary with pageantry, propaganda and an iron grip]
But Xi, 68, indicated he would not
be swayed.
“The Chinese people have never
bullied, oppressed, or enslaved the people of other countries,” he said. “At
the same time, the Chinese people will never allow any foreign forces to bully,
oppress or enslave us. Anyone who dares try to do that will have their heads
bashed bloody against a Great Wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese
people.”
“Heads bashed bloody” became a trending
topic on Weibo on Thursday, with more than 900 million views.
Thursday’s celebration at Tiananmen
Square, which included a military flyover, 100-gun salute and patriotic songs, capped weeks
of pageantry and nationalistic displays in the lead-up to the ruling party’s
100th anniversary.
The Communist Party was founded in
Shanghai in 1921. It won victory in the Chinese Civil War in 1949 — ousting the
nationalist Kuomintang, which fled to Taiwan — and has ruled the country ever
since, often with an iron fist.
In the speech, Xi reiterated that
it was the party’s “historic mission” to bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control.
China has sharply ramped up military incursions into Taiwanese airspace in
recent months, leading some analysts to warn of the potential for military
conflict, perhaps even a Chinese invasion of the democratic
island. Along with Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, the
Taiwan dispute is a major flash point in the region.
[Facing
a demographic crisis, China to allow three children per family]
Xi, who has eliminated limits on
his time in office, has presided over steady economic growth and a rise in
living standards since taking the party’s top job in late 2012. But his tenure
has been marked by the rollout of a vast surveillance state in which citizens are
tracked closely by the government and dissent is crushed.
The country’s economy — the world’s
second-largest — has rebounded quickly from the coronavirus
outbreak, with the World Bank forecasting growth of 8.5 percent this year. But
China also faces many challenges, not least the demographic dual hit of a low
birthrate and an aging population.
China’s diplomats have been
increasingly aggressive in pushing back at Western criticism, often via social
media platforms that Beijing blocks its citizens from using. But this forceful
“Wolf Warrior” approach — named after a patriotic Chinese action film franchise
— has rankled outsiders and has been cited as a key factor in Beijing’s
diminished global image.
In recent remarks, Xi urged diplomats to create a
“trustworthy, lovable and respectable” image for China, according to Bloomberg
News, adding that the country needed to be “humble” as well as confident.
Read more
China
marks Communist Party centenary with pageantry, propaganda and an iron grip
Biden
administration bars imports of solar panels linked to forced labor in China’s
Xinjiang region
Facing
a demographic crisis, China to allow three children per family
