“Broken heads and blood”: Xi Jinping’s threat to the world in action for the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party

BEIJING.- Today is not another day in China. It is a day of mass events, celebrations, speeches. In the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic which reported its first cases in this Asian country, the government of Xi Jinping He appears to have left concerns about the outbreak behind and is poised to consolidate his leadership. And his words on this special date point in this direction.

Dressed in a gray buttoned suit in the style of Mao Zedong, the leader spoke from the balcony of the Tiananmen Gate and he stressed the role of the party in elevating China to the international level, adding that it will never stray from the people.

Despite the force of all his speech, there was a particular moment when the ovation This was the most notorious, and it happened when he described the party as the force that had restored the dignity of China and made it the second largest economy in the world since taking power in the war. calendar of 1949.

After that, launched a threat to the world assuring: “The Chinese people will not allow any foreign force to intimidate, oppress or enslave them at all and whoever tries to meet broken heads and bloodshed In front of Great iron wall of the 1400 million Chinese citizens ”.

Xi, 68, who chairs the party and the world’s largest armed forces, also said the country has restored order to the Hong Kong following the anti-government protests that paralyzed the semi-autonomous city in 2019 and reiterated its determination to include the Taiwan under your control.

“The Chinese people are a people with a strong sense of pride and self-confidence,” Xi said, adding. “We have never intimidated, oppressed or enslaved the people of another nation, neither in the past, nor in the present, nor in the future.”.

“The great renaissance of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process,” he added.

Xi’s statements come at a time when China experiences growing rivalry with the United States for the status of world power and it faces India by its border. Beijing also claims uninhabited islands in Japanese hands and almost all of the East China Sea, while threatening to invade Taiwan, with whom Washington has strengthened its relations and military sales.

But the government is also facing harsh criticism for alleged abuse of power in its territory, including the detention of more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities for political re-education in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, and for the imprisonment or intimidation of those who consider Tibet’s possible rivals in Hong Kong.

Today’s events cap off weeks of ceremonies and acts in which the role of the Communist Party (founded by a handful of activists in July 1921 in a Shanghai still divided into foreign concessions) to the improvement of the country’s quality of life and the resumption of economic, political and military influence abroad. These advances, as well as severe repression to opponents, they helped the party to stay in power despite the fact that its 92 million members represent barely 6% of the population.

Although the progress mainly comes from the economic reforms implemented by Deng Xiaoping four decades ago, the celebrations focus on the role of Xi, who has established himself as the most powerful Chinese leader since. Mao. In his role and at the event, Xi mentioned the contributions of his predecessors in his speech, which was dominated by his assertions about progress in poverty reduction and economic progress, while raising the international profile. from China and standing up to the West.

During the event, 100 cannon shots rang out in Beijing to mark the centenary, and the Air Force acrobatic patrol flew over Tiananmen Square, drawing red, yellow and blue beams in the sky. Likewise, some helicopters had the number “100” in the sky and others carried the party flag, with the yellow hammer and sickle on a red background.

Xi, in power since March 2013, lifted the presidential deadline and he is expected to begin his third five-year term in early 2022.

AP and AFP agencies

Photos: AFP and AP

Photo edition: Fernanda Corbani

THE NATION