Status: 07/01/2021 10:46 a.m.
In China, the government is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party. Head of State Xi Jinping underlined the party’s absolute claim to leadership in a speech in Beijing.
From Steffen Wurzel,
ARD studio Shanghai
Over the past hundred years, the Communist Party has united and led the Chinese people, said state and party leader Xi Jinping in his one-hour celebratory speech on the occasion of the CP’s 100th birthday. Despite all the fighting, despite all the sacrifices, this mission ultimately serves one goal: the “rebirth of the Chinese nation”. This rebirth of the nation would not be possible without the CP’s absolute claim to leadership in all areas of life for the Chinese, as Xi made clear several times.
For the birthday celebration, the government had the place at the Gate of Heavenly Peace in the center of the Chinese capital Beijing lavishly decorated: with large flower beds, red flags and golden hammer-and-sickle symbols. Around 70,000 people were invited to the celebration, including soldiers, school classes, employees of state companies and retired party members. Choirs sang Communist Party songs. Before the speech by the head of state and party, fighter jets and military helicopters had flown over the square, cannons fired gun salutes.
The festively decorated Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Image: EPA
“Great Wall of Steel”
The Chinese people have risen, stressed Xi. Addressing abroad, he said on the one hand that China had no aggressive or hegemonic intentions. On the other hand, China’s head of state also struck nationalist tones: one will never allow foreign powers to tyrannize, oppress or enslave the Chinese people. Whoever tries something like this will – literally – experience bloodshed, “a bloodshed on a great wall of steel”, which was built from the “flesh and blood” of more than 1.4 billion Chinese. At this point, Xi received particularly great cheers and applause.
Xi’s speech was broadcast across the country on big screens, like here in Beijing.
Image: REUTERS
Not a word about crime
The Chinese Communist Party was founded on July 23, 1921 in Shanghai. Since October 1949 she has ruled the most populous country in the world in sole power. After taking office at the end of 2012, Xi significantly expanded the influence of the Communist Party on the state, society and the economy.
In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has developed into an extremely nationalist and fascist party, said political scientist Wu Qiang in an interview with the ARD. He used to teach at Tsinghua University in Beijing, but was dismissed for his openly critical stance towards the Communist Party.
While the party leadership emphasizes successes such as poverty reduction and the economic rise of China in the past few decades, critics point to the many millions of lives that the Chinese Communist Party has on its conscience. These many dark sides of the party’s history do not play a role in China during the 100th anniversary celebrations.