Centennial celebration meets 100-year change, Xi Jinping speaks of loyalty or has deep meaning

In a speech marking the centennial of the Communist Party of China (CPC), General Secretary Xi Jinping called for making loyalty to the CPC the primary party membership standard. According to China watchers, this should be a warning to the whole party that the CCP may be facing a major new split, according to the CCP’s language.

On Tuesday (June 29), the Communist Party held a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People to award the “July 1 Medal” to 29 members of the Communist Party, which represents the Communist Party’s highest honor.

The honorees came from the military, local communities, the arts and the sciences who have made “outstanding contributions” to the Party.

The CCP is the largest political party in the world, with 91.9 million members, or 6.6 percent of China’s population. The party has ruled China since 1949, when it seized state power through war.

Xi Jinping gave a speech after the award ceremony, in which he talked about the “firm beliefs”, “practicing the purpose”, “hard work and dedication” and “integrity and devotion” that members of the Communist Party should have. The four character and spirit of “integrity and public service”. In these four points, Xi Jinping deliberately put loyalty in the first place.

Xi Jinping asked all Party members to “believe in the Party, love the Party and be for the Party”, asked them to be loyal to the Party “forever”, and asked them to “dedicate all of themselves and even their precious lives” to the Party.

According to the custom of the CCP’s internal struggle, when the Party’s top leaders publicly raise certain slogans and make certain appeals, it is often the case that the Party’s top leaders are calling for an act of opposition. The most typical example is Mao Zedong’s “Three Wants and Three Don’ts” issued to the Party in 1971, that is, “Be Marxist-Leninist, not revisionist; be united, not divided; be open and aboveboard, not scheming.” This principle of “three wants and three don’ts” was the means of struggle adopted by Mao Zedong to remove his successor, Lin Biao, whom he had trained.

In 1978, Deng Xiaoping proposed to “oppose the two Fan Yes” (“We firmly uphold all decisions made by Chairman Mao, and follow all his instructions without fail”), with the aim of removing the large number of The purpose was to remove a large number of forces loyal to Mao’s line from the Party after the fall of the Gang of Four. Subsequently, under the slogan of “opposing the two mortalities,” Hua Guofeng, Wang Dongxing and other CCP leaders were forced out and Deng Xiaoping’s faction took full power.

China watchers point out that the centennial anniversary has been marked by a tightening of the CCP’s internal controls and a hardening of its external policies, leading to a serious confrontation with all Western countries. Various sources indicate that dissenting voices have emerged within the Communist Party and that Xi Jinping is trying to retain his position through heavy-handed tactics under internal and external pressure.

On Monday, an article published on the website of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and State Supervision said that since the 18th CPC National Congress, discipline inspection and supervision organs nationwide have investigated and punished 4.09 million people, and 3,742,000 have been subject to party disciplinary and political punishment. The two figures add up to 7.83 million CCP members who have been dealt with, accounting for 8.6 percent of the total party membership.

Analysts say the fight against corruption is considered a major political achievement since Xi came to power, but it is also a key tool for Xi to combat and eliminate dissent within the party.

The scale and level of security at this year’s party celebration may be rare in the history of the Communist Party. According to information seen by reporters, Beijing authorities conducted security checks on streets and waterways, and then marked all iron covers on the streets with wax seals. No unofficially designated photographers were allowed to enter the celebration venue, and the relevant video will be released by the CCP propaganda agencies after three days.

WeChat also saw a recent notice issued by the “Central War Zone Air Force Protection Department directly under the protection team”, asking families not to open windows on the street side during the festival, but also to draw the curtains. Families can not meet guests, can not open the window probe to watch, take pictures and video.

According to media reports, a large gala “The Great Journey” was scheduled for Tuesday night and was suddenly moved up to Monday night. The sudden change to such a major commemorative event is seen by observers as highly unusual. The report said that former Communist Party leaders Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao and Zhu Rongji were not present.

Previously, Hong Kong media said Xi would award medals to Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. However, it was found that their names did not appear in the list of honorees at the ceremony.

While opposing so-called “historical nihilism,” the CCP’s new god-making campaign continues. According to Beijing-based Dovetail News, a chronology of the CPC’s 100-year history prepared by the Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee was released by the official news agency Xinhua on June 27. The full chronicle of events is more than 90,000 words long and chronicles the history of the CCP year by year.

According to statistics, the names of the five top leaders of the CPC, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping, appear 138 times, 75 times, 40 times, 32 times and 184 times respectively in the chronicle. Xi Jinping’s name appeared surprisingly more times than Mao Zedong’s, and more times than the sum of Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao (147 times).

On June 28, the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the CCP, also published an article entitled “The mountain is the people, the people are the mountain,” which strongly portrayed Xi as “a people’s leader who comes out of the people, who has deep feelings for the people and a strong sense of responsibility.

According to Chinese observers, the CCP’s intensification of social control, warnings within the party and external propaganda on the occasion of the “centennial” fully reflects the fact that its reality is far from the “four self-confidence” it has always advocated.