President Xi marks centenary with warning shot to West
Didi Tang, Beijing
Thursday July 01 2021, 9.00am, The Times
United States
President Xi marked 100 years of the Chinese Communist Party today with a bellicose warning that the blood and flesh of 1.4 billion Chinese citizens would be used to repel any western attempt to “bully, oppress or enslave us”.
In
an hour-long speech on the top of the Tiananmen Gate in the heart of Beijing, Xi warned that “bloodied heads” would result from any attempt to interfere in Chinese affairs.
“The Chinese people have never bullied, oppressed or enslaved people of other countries. It did not happen in the past. It doesn’t happen now. And it won’t happen in the future,” Xi said.
President Xi’s speech was broadcast to 70,000 people in Tiananmen Square
ROMAN PILIPEY/EPA
“At the same time, the Chinese people will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or enslave us,” Xi added. “Those who dare to do that are certain to get bloodied heads as they smash into the great wall made of the blood and flesh of the 1.4 billion Chinese people.”
Xi vowed to exercise full governance over Hong Kong and Macau and to eventually unify Taiwan, a self-governed island, on a day Hong Kong police were deploying more than 10,000 officers throughout the territory to prevent any protests.
July 1 also marks the 24th anniversary of the territory’s return to Chinese rule.
It came as the US and Japan were conducting joint military exercises amid fears of a possible conflict with China over Taiwan. The activities, which include war games and drills in the South China and East China seas, follow two years of planning, anonymous sources told the
Financial Times.
Chinese choristers were part of events in Tiananmen Square
KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY
China has grown increasingly assertive in the region, flying sorties into Taiwan’s air defence zone and sending ships and aircraft close to the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, which lie 215 miles east of Taiwan and are claimed by Beijing.
In Beijing, the festivities in Tiananmen Square started early in the morning under an overcast sky, when military jets flew over in the formation of “100” and “71” and displayed congratulatory banners, to the loud cheers of about 70,000 people.
Many waved the national flag or the party flag of the hammer and sickle in excitement. It was followed by a hundred gun salutes to mark the 100 years of the party.
After a group of young people paid tribute to the party, Xi took to the stage and began his speech by declaring that the party had achieved its first centenary goal by building a “moderately prosperous society [in China]” and “having historically solved the problem of absolute poverty”.
“Now we are marching with high spirits toward the second centenary goal to build a socialist, modern power,” Xi said of the goal to be achieved by 2049 when the People’s Republic will mark its first centenary.
“This is the great glory of the Chinese nation. This is the great glory of the Chinese people, and this is the great glory of the Chinese Communist Party,” Xi said.
As he reviewed the party’s history, Xi drove home the message that only the party could save the country after toppling imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism in the early 20th century to found the People’s Republic in 1949.
“The Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people have solemnly proclaimed to the world with their heroic and tenacious struggles that the Chinese people are not only good at destroying an old world but also at building a new one,” Xi said. “Only socialism can save China, and only socialism with Chinese characteristics can develop China!”
The rise of China was inevitable, Xi claimed: “The Chinese nation has made a great leap from standing up, getting rich to getting strong, and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process.”
A confident China will not take any condescending lecturing from the West, he added. “The Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people will walk down the path of our choice and tightly grasp the fate of China’s development in our own hands,” Xi said.
He vowed to build a strong army to ensure national security and to safeguard the party rule.
“We will have a
world-class army so that we can safeguard state sovereignty, security and development interests with greater abilities and more reliable methods.”
Fireworks over the Orange Isle in Changsha, Hunan Province
LIU XIANGJUN/VCG /GETTY IMAGES
Xi took the occasion to reiterate Beijing’s determination to seize
Taiwan, even though the island has its own democratically elected government and does not see itself as part of the Chinese territory.
“It is a historical task to which the party is firmly committed and it is a common wish of the Chinese people to resolve the Taiwan issue and achieve the total reunification of the motherland,” Xi said, as he vowed to crush any plots to divide the island.
“No one should underestimate the strong determination, the firm will and the powerful ability of the Chinese people to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said to a long applause from the audience from the square.
He concluded his speech by raising his right arm and calling out: “Long live the great, glorious and correct Chinese Communist Party! Long live the great, glorious and heroic Chinese people.”
Wang Dan, a former student leader in exile, was unimpressed by the celebrations.
“From the recorder-like cheers to the robotic steps of the honour guards, from the J-20 fighters to the gun salutes, and to the rows of smile-less, zombie-like old people on the city wall, the atmosphere was rather eerie than festive. There was no joy but tension,” Wang tweeted. “ It was just like today’s sky in Beijing: no sunshine but vast greyness.”
In Hong Kong, police revoked the bail of Hang Tung Chow, a pro-democracy activist, and arrested her on the eve of the centenary celebrations. She is accused of inciting others to take part in a protest. Chow had urged Hong Kong people to wear black today in protest, after the authorities rejected requests for a traditional anti-government rally.
Instead, the Hong Kong police have more than 10,000 officers across the city to stop any gatherings today. They locked down Victoria Park, a key venue for rallies, and barricaded streets.
