Tiananmen monitoring head in the sunset (Reuters)
July 1, 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In an effort to create a political atmosphere of so-called jubilation while the global epidemic is still in pandemic proportions, the various propaganda machines of the CCP have turned on high-profile celebrations. Observers say that the challenges of maintaining the legitimacy of the Communist Party, its institutional corruption, and the economic development and social contradictions facing China are such that the aging party may not be able to go much further.
Communist Party Raises the Tone of Party Day Propaganda
The global pandemic that began in 2020 is still raging, infecting tens of thousands of people and claiming thousands of lives every day. At the same time, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities have begun to raise the tone of propaganda to create a supposedly festive and peaceful political atmosphere in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CCP.
At the end of 2020, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) organized the “Ideals Shine in China – State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China” campaign, launching “100 Years of 100” so-called masterpieces to be broadcast on Beijing, Dongfang, Hunan, Jiangsu and other TV stations on New Year’s Day 2021 to “eulogize” the Communist Party of China’s self-proclaimed “great, glorious and correct Communist Party of China.
From January 1, 2021, the propaganda department of the Communist Party also launched more than 100 “red footprint” tourism products covering “revolutionary holy places” in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and cities, including Jinggang Mountain, Xibaipo, Yan’an and Shanghai, for the public to visit, understand, learn and admire the great achievements of the so-called Chinese Communist Party in leading the Chinese people over the past century.
Communist Propaganda Departments Create Communist Narratives
In an interview with the Voice of America, Dr. Wang Juntao, a political scientist at Columbia University, said that the CCP propaganda department’s party celebration at a time when Wuhan pneumonia has caused a major global catastrophe is a way to create a so-called CCP narrative in line with CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping‘s proposal to “build a high point of powerful national public opinion.
I don’t think there is anything to celebrate,” he said. If we look at it from the point of view of conscience and morality, this party should thank the country, the people and the world, and should do something like this. The Chinese Communist Party has caused too many disasters, like the recent pneumonia pandemic in Wuhan.”
Hu Jia, a well-known human rights activist in Beijing, told VOA that Xi Jinping again mentioned the “two hundred-year” goal in his Oct. 18, 2017 report to the 19th Communist Party Congress, which is to build a moderately prosperous society by 2021, the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party’s founding, and by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party’s establishment of power. In 2049, on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Communist Party, a modern socialist country will be built. He said the 100th anniversary of the CCP’s founding this year is an important point for the political career of current CCP leader Xi Jinping and for the authorities to trumpet the CCP’s great achievements.
The year 2021 is very important for Xi Jinping,” he said. In the 100 years since the CCP was founded, whoever is leading the party now will use this theme of the party celebration to carry forward the CCP’s great achievements and forge a chapter in history. If not for the recent outbreak of the new crown epidemic in Beijing, the entire first six months of the year would have revolved around this theme, from January 1 to the New Year.”
The three “treasures” of the CCP
The Chinese Communist Party was founded in 1921. In July of that year, Li Da, Li Hanjun, Zhang Guotao, Mao Zedong, He Shuheng, Chen Tanqiu, Dong Biwu, Bao Huisheng (sent by Chen Duxiu) and 13 others, representing more than 50 members of the Party in China, as well as two representatives of the Communist International, attended the First National Congress of the CPC in Shanghai and formally announced the establishment of the Party. Chen Duxiu, a professor at Peking University who was regarded as the main flag bearer of the Chinese New Culture Movement, was elected as the Secretary of the Central Bureau and became the first leader of the CPC.
Since the founding of the Party in 1921, there have been several changes in the leadership of the CCP, and the Zunyi Conference in 1935 established Mao Zedong as the leader of the CCP. Mao remained the leader of the CCP for nearly 40 years until his death in 1976. Since then, Hua Guofeng, Deng Xiaoping, Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping have been the top leaders of the CCP.
It took only 28 years from the official founding of the CCP in 1921 to the seizure of power in China in 1949. Mao Zedong summarized the CCP’s success as the mastery of the “three magic weapons”, namely the “united front,” “armed struggle” and “party building. “and “Party building”.
CCP Faces Unprecedented Crisis and Challenges
However, observers point out that the CCP, which boasts of “not forgetting its original intention” and adhering to “the road, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics”, is entering its “old age “For a long time, especially in the past 30 years, the Chinese Communist Party has been a single party, authoritarian and dictatorial, above the law and not subject to media supervision, resulting in rampant top-down, institutionalized corruption among its cadres. The future of this century-old party is facing an unprecedented crisis and challenge.
In late 2012, after taking office as general secretary of the CCP, Xi Jinping admitted that the CCP’s “corruption problem is getting worse and worse, and will eventually lead to the death of the party and the country. Xi launched a massive anti-corruption campaign to prevent the CCP from being spurned by the people and withdrawn from the stage of history due to systemic corruption.
According to incomplete statistics, since General Secretary Xi Jinping took office at the end of 2012, he has launched a massive anti-corruption campaign to “beat the tigers and swat the flies,” with senior CCP officials ranging from Zhou Yongkang at the state level, Su Rong, Ling Plan, Sun Zhengcai, Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou at the vice state level, nearly 100 military and armed police generals, hundreds of provincial and ministerial-level cadres, and thousands of bureau and department-level cadres and countless general party cadres being investigated and punished.
The Communist Party’s highest principle: everything for its own existence
Dr. Wang Juntao, a U.S.-based political scientist, said one of the main reasons for the CCP’s institutional corruption is that the CCP has long since ceased to be a communist party in the Marxist sense of the word, as it emerged from the industrial revolution in Europe. He said that the several major crises that have hit the CCP in its history, and which have survived the catastrophe, have to do with the innovations that the CCP itself has undertaken, but, he noted, the CCP will never give up its leadership, no matter how much it innovates and keeps up with the times.
He said, “This party has become shameless, without any ideological or moral code of endorsement. There is only one thing, and that is to keep itself alive and stay in power for a long time and forever. If it can live by morality, it will live by morality; if it can live by money, it will live by money; if it can live by corruption, it will live by corruption; if it can live by discipline and rigor, it will live by discipline and rigor. The CCP has taken its own existence as the highest value and principle, and everything else is derived for this purpose.”
Wang Juntao said, although the number of Chinese Communist Party members is huge, but the real struggle to achieve the communism put forward by Marx in those days of the Chinese Communist Party members and cadres, from the top to the bottom of the serious degree of corruption, the world is shocked.
The Communist Party uses anti-corruption to exclude dissidents
Beijing-based activist Hu Jia said that while the Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has launched a major anti-corruption campaign, despite the fact that a number of genuine corrupt officials have been punished and sentenced to prison, another purpose of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign is to combat and exclude dissenters and liquidate those who do not bow down to the opposition in the name of fighting corruption. At the same time, Xi Jinping has been nurturing and cultivating the second, third, and even fourth generation of the Reds, as well as those who tend to be loyal and opportunistic, so as to strengthen and consolidate his position and prestige in the Party and become the core of the CCP.
Unchecked power and corruption will not be eliminated
Hu Jia also said that the CCP understands that “water can carry a boat or overturn it” and “those who win the hearts of the people will win the world”, but the CCP’s fight against corruption is like swatting flies on a pile of cow dung.
He said, “Cow dung will keep attracting flies, and the CCP’s anti-corruption campaign is like swatting flies endlessly on cow dung. The key question, however, is how to eradicate the cow dung that breeds corruption. Cow dung is the hotbed of corruption in the CCP. The hotbed is unchecked power. This power is not constrained by media opinion, nor by public opinion because the people do not have votes in their hands, nor by political opposition forces because there is no opposition or opposition party to compete with the CCP. And a person or group that refuses to be disciplined by others will definitely not do a good job of self-regulation either. Such a person will never sincerely do a good job of self-regulation, nor will he or she be capable of self-regulation and self-restraint.”
The only pillar supporting the CCP’s legitimacy
Hu Jia said that since China’s reform and opening up in 1978, especially after being accepted as a WTO member in 2001, it has gained development dividends in the process of interfacing with the world, so the economy has seen rapid growth, but this does not mean how great the CCP is. He said the only explanation for the CCP’s current legitimacy is “rapid economic growth,” despite the high costs behind it, including wasted resources, environmental pollution, and violations of laws and human rights. Even so, he said, China’s economic development has reached a bottleneck in recent years, with growth rates slowing considerably and various social conflicts and problems that were once concealed by high economic growth becoming more and more evident. As a result, the CCP is facing a number of crises and its legitimacy is increasingly being challenged. All these contradictions and problems are brewing for the possibility of a June Fourth-like protest at some point in the future, which could endanger the existence of the CCP.
All in all, what we can see is the CCP propaganda machine singing its praises,” he said. But the contradictions, frictions and internal conflicts within the CCP system, as well as its efforts to maintain social stability and suppression, are all masked by the CCP’s loud propaganda for the Party’s celebration. All these are the accumulation of lava under the seemingly calm volcano.”
Internal and external problems of the CCP are not many days ahead?
Hu Jia also said that the CCP is facing various problems, challenges and crises that even some senior officials in the system doubt whether the CCP can continue to survive and are not optimistic about the future fate of the CCP. He believes that a party like the CCP will not have many days left in the future.
Political scholar Wang Juntao said that the authoritarian, dictatorial and corrupt CCP has entered its 100th year of age. Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, the leader of the CCP who does not understand Marxism and does not speak Marxism, the CCP has acted against public opinion, reversed its practices and committed many evils.
There are still more than five months to go before the Communist Party Day. Observers point out that as July 1 draws near, the CCP’s various propaganda machines will be in full gear, highlighting the greatness of the CCP, the wise leadership of CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping, and the great achievements. CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping will also deliver a speech on July 1, laying another so-called new milestone for his position in the CCP.
CCP Party Celebration Kicks Off Amid Unprecedented Oppression and Brutal Crackdown on Human Rights
Beijing-based observer Hu Jia said that, like previous political years with special “red flags,” the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party’s founding is also a time of increased repression of human rights in China by the Chinese authorities. Dissidents and activists who advocate for constitutionalism, rule of law and democracy will also be subject to unprecedented repression.
He said, “When the CCP’s loudspeakers are promoting the 100th anniversary of its founding in high profile, there must be undercurrents underneath, and the political secret police below will be operating at full throttle to tighten censorship and blockade of speech. Because the ‘high pressure line’ set by the CCP is getting lower and lower, it has set the high pressure line at the position of the neck of the feet, and if you want to take even half a step, you will touch the high pressure line of the CCP.”
(Original title: How far can the 100-year-old party go as the CCP kicks off its party celebration?
Recent Comments