The important speech delivered by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on the occasion of the CPC’s centenary celebrations on July 1, 2021, recapped the great moments of the Party’s endeavors and glories.

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers an important speech at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC in Beijing on July 1, 2021.

Solemn Declaration

Xi, speaking on behalf of the Party and the people, declared, “Through continued efforts of the whole Party and the entire nation, we have realized the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. This means that we have brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty in China, and we are now marching with confident strides toward the second centenary goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects.” Xi further pointed out that it was a great and glorious accomplishment for the Chinese nation, for the Chinese people, and for the CPC.

Poverty has been a stubborn obstacle for human progress. The CPC’s centennial history has been marked by its endeavors to lead Chinese people on a path out of poverty. After years of exploration, trials, and tribulations, China blazed an innovative path for poverty reduction, creating a Chinese model as a result.

China’s completion of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects has boosted the global economy, advanced social progress of humanity as a whole, and provided the rest of the world with a new social development option.

In his speech, Xi emphasized that since the very day of its founding, the Party has made seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation of the Chinese nation its mission. “All the struggle, sacrifice, and creation through which the Party has united and led the Chinese people over the past hundred years has been tied together by one ultimate theme — bringing about the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

Xi expounded on the great achievements the CPC had secured in different historical periods.

During the period of the new democratic revolution, the Party united and led the Chinese people in fighting bloody battles with unyielding determination, and put an end to China’s history as a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society, to the state of total disunity that existed in old China, and to all the unequal treaties imposed on the country by foreign powers and all the privileges that imperialist powers enjoyed in China, thus creating the fundamental social conditions for realizing national rejuvenation. With the victory of the new democratic revolution, the Party and the Chinese people showed the world that the Chinese people had stood up, and that the time in which the Chinese nation could be bullied and abused by others was gone forever. 

During the period of China’s socialist revolution and construction, the Party united and led the Chinese people in endeavoring to build a stronger China with a spirit of self-reliance. It achieved great success, and brought about the most extensive and profound social changes in the history of the Chinese nation. This great transformation from a poor and backward country with a large population into a socialist country laid down the fundamental political conditions and the institutional foundations necessary for realizing national rejuvenation. The Party and the Chinese people showed the world that only socialism could save China, and that only socialism could develop China. 

During the period of the country’s reform, opening-up, and socialist modernization, the Party has united and led the Chinese people in mental liberation, forging ahead to establish the Party’s basic line for the primary stage of socialism. The CPC has advanced reform and opening up, overcome risks and challenges, and founded, upheld, safeguarded, and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics. Thus, the CPC has brought about a major turn with far-reaching significance in the history of the Party since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. This has enabled China to transform itself from a highly centralized planned economy to a socialist market economy brimming with vitality, and from a country that was largely isolated to one that is open to the outside world across the board. It has also enabled China to achieve the historic leap from a country with relatively backward productive forces to the world’s second largest economy, and to make the historic transformation of raising the living standards of its people from bare subsistence to an overall level of moderate prosperity, and then ultimately to moderate prosperity in all respects. These achievements have fueled the push toward national rejuvenation by providing institutional guarantees imbued with new energy, as well as the material conditions for rapid development. 

The Party and the Chinese people have shown the world that by pursuing reform and opening-up, a crucial move in making China what it is today, the country has quickly caught up with the times.

In the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the Party has united and led the Chinese people in pursuing a great struggle, a great project, a great cause, and a great dream through a spirit of self-confidence, self-reliance, and innovation, fulfilled the first centenary goal, and set out strategic steps for achieving the second centenary goal. All the historic achievements and changes of the Party and the country have provided the cause of national rejuvenation with more robust institutions, stronger material foundations, and a source of inspiration for taking greater initiative. 

The Party and the Chinese people have shown the world that the Chinese nation has achieved the tremendous transformation from standing up and growing prosperous to becoming strong, and that China’s national rejuvenation has become a historical inevitability. 

During the different periods, the Party and the Chinese people have shown the world their indefatigable spirit, determination, and aspiration to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, their fearlessness in the face of power and confidence in independent development, as well as the consistency in sticking to the correct development path amid efforts to build China into a great modern socialist country in all respects.

A Vivid Illumination of Marxism

Xi’s speech highlighted the most essential and representative parts of the CPC’s history, and drove Marxist views home.

He clarified the relationship among the capability of the Party, the strengths of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the fact that Marxism works for China. “At the fundamental level, the capability of our Party and the strengths of socialism with Chinese characteristics are attributable to the fact that Marxism works.” Xi reviewed Chinese people’s endeavors to save the country from national humiliation and cultural darkness after the Opium War of 1840, and accentuated the point that only Marxism-Leninism could give the Chinese nation strengths and offer it the correct ideological direction, and that the CPC, which was born out of the integration of Marxism-Leninism and the Chinese workers’ movement, can lead the Chinese people to realize the great rejuvenation of Chinese nation.

Over the past 100 years, the CPC has grown into a mature political party with great global influence while still maintaining its vitality. It has profoundly changed the course of the Chinese history in modern times, transformed the future direction of the Chinese people and nation, and altered the landscape of world development.

The Party’s soul is its guiding ideology. Attracted by its scientific nature, its revelation of the objective law of human society’s development, and its view that the general public is the creator of history, countless Chinese people have joined the CPC. In his speech, Xi called on Party members to take a moment to cherish the memory of veteran revolutionaries who contributed greatly to China’s revolution, construction, and reform, and to the founding, consolidation, and development of the CPC; of the revolutionary martyrs who bravely laid down their lives to establish, defend, and develop the People’s Republic of China; of those who dedicated their lives to reform, opening-up, and socialist modernization; and of all the men and women who fought tenaciously for national independence and the liberation of the people in modern times. They are the vivid embodiment of the CPC’s history and spirit, presenting a glorious example of the Party’s endeavors to gain national independence, achieve social prosperity, and improve people’s lives.

The CPC has shaped a great spirit over the 100 years of development. In his speech, Xi summed up the Party’s great founding spirit, which is composed of the following principles: upholding truth and ideals, staying true to the original aspiration and founding mission, fighting bravely without fear of sacrifice, and remaining loyal to the Party and faithful to the people. This spirit is the Party’s source of strength and its soul. On the basis of this spirit, the CPC has developed a long line of inspiring principles for Chinese Communists.

The First China International Consumer Products Expo held in Haikou, Hainan Province, has its public open day on May 10, 2021.

A Guide for Action

Xi’s speech is also a guide for action. By learning from history, we can understand why powers rise and fall. Through the mirror of history, we can find where we currently stand and gain foresight into the future. Xi summarized nine principles that the CPC must stick to in order to achieve national rejuvenation. Those principles, being the CPC’s important experience, also explained why the Party was successful in the past and how it can continue to succeed in the future.

The CPC must uphold the firm leadership of the Party. China’s success hinges on the Party. The leadership of the Party is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and constitutes the greatest strength of this system. It is the foundation and lifeblood of the Party and the country, and the crux upon which the interests and wellbeing of all Chinese people depend. History has provided abundant evidence that the Party’s leadership is the key for the country to realize the great rejuvenation. The Party was chosen by history and the people.

The CPC must unite and lead the Chinese people in working ceaselessly for a better life. The people-oriented conception of history is the scientific foundation of Marxism, and the people-oriented stand is the basic position of the CPC. The great cause of national rejuvenation relies on the strength of the people. Xi emphasized, “As we have fought to establish and consolidate our leadership over the country, we have in fact been fighting to earn and keep the people’s support.”

For 100 years, the Party has always represented the fundamental interests of all Chinese people; it has stood with them through thick and thin and shared a common fate with them. The Party has no special interests of its own — it has never represented any individual interest group, power group, or privileged stratum. Any attempt to divide the Party from the Chinese people or to set the people against the Party is bound to fail.

The CPC must continue to adapt Marxism to its own reality. Marxism is the fundamental guiding ideology upon which the Party and country are founded; it is the very soul of the Party and the banner under which it strives. The CPC upholds the basic tenets of Marxism and the principle of seeking truth from facts.

The CPC must uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics. “We must follow our own path — this is the bedrock that underpins all the theories and practices of our Party,” said Xi. More than that, it is the historical conclusion our Party has drawn from its struggles over the past century. Over the past decades, as it has upheld and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics and driven coordinated progress in material, political, cultural-ethical, social, and ecological terms, the country pioneered a new and unique Chinese path to modernization, and created a new model for human advancement.

The CPC must accelerate the modernization of the country’s national defense and armed forces. A strong country must have a strong military, as only then can it guarantee the security of the nation. The people’s military has made indelible achievements on behalf of the Party and the people. “It is a strong pillar for safeguarding our socialist country and preserving national dignity, and a powerful force for protecting peace in our region and beyond,” said Xi.

He emphasized that the country must follow a Chinese path to military development. “We will take comprehensive measures to enhance the political loyalty of the armed forces, to strengthen them through reform and technology and the training of competent personnel, and to run them in accordance with the law. We will elevate our people’s armed forces to world-class standards so that we are equipped with greater capacity and more reliable means for safeguarding our national sovereignty, security, and development interests,” said Xi.

The CPC must continue working to promote the building of a human community with a shared future. On the journey ahead, the Party will remain committed to promoting peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit, to an independent foreign policy of peace, and to the path of peaceful development, said Xi. “We will work to build a new type of international relations and a human community with a shared future, promote high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative through joint efforts, and use China’s new achievements in development to provide the world with new opportunities,” he said.

The Party will continue to work with all peace-loving countries and peoples to promote the shared human values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom. “We will continue to champion cooperation over confrontation, to open up rather than closing our doors, and to focus on mutual benefits instead of zero-sum games. We will oppose hegemony and power politics, and strive to keep the wheels of history rolling toward bright horizons,” said Xi. China has always worked to safeguard world peace, contribute to global development, and preserve international order. It will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate its people.

The Party must carry out a great struggle with many contemporary features. “Having the courage to fight and the fortitude to win is what has made our Party invincible,” said Xi.

He went on to say, “On the journey ahead, we must demonstrate stronger vigilance and always be prepared for potential danger, even in times of calm.” “We must adopt a holistic approach to national security that balances development and security imperatives, and implement the national rejuvenation strategy within a wider context of the once-in-a-century changes taking place in the world. We need to acquire a full understanding of the new features and requirements arising from the change to the principal contradiction in Chinese society and the new issues and challenges stemming from a complicated international environment. We must be both brave and adept in carrying out our struggle, forging new paths, and building new bridges wherever necessary to take us past all risks and challenges,” he said.

The CPC must strengthen the great unity of the Chinese people. In the course of its struggles over the past century, the Party has always placed the united front in a position of importance. “We have constantly consolidated and developed the broadest possible united front, united all the forces that can be united, mobilized all positive factors that can be mobilized, and pooled as much strength as possible for collective endeavors,” said Xi. He added that on the journey ahead, the Party must ensure great unity and solidarity and balance commonality and diversity.

“We should strengthen theoretical and political guidance, build broad consensus, bring together the brightest minds, and expand common ground and the convergence of interests, so that all Chinese people, both at home and overseas, can focus their ingenuity and energy on the same goal and come together as a mighty force for realizing national rejuvenation,” Xi emphasized.

The Party must continue to advance the great new project of Party building. An important reason why the Party remains so vital and vibrant, despite having undergone so many trials and tribulations, is that it practices effective self-supervision and full and rigorous self-governance. It has thus been able to respond appropriately to the risks and tests of different historical periods, to ensure that it always remains at the forefront of the times even as profound changes sweep the global landscape, and to stand firm as the backbone of the nation throughout the process of meeting various risks and challenges at home and abroad.

With the completion of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, China, now a thriving nation, is advancing with unstoppable momentum toward rejuvenation.

XIA YIPU is an associate research fellow with the Research Center of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.