BEIJING – China’s ruling Communist Party is celebrating the centennial of its founding with speeches and grand presentations to show economic progress and social stability to justify its iron grip on political power, which it does not seek to loosen.

President and leader Xi Jinping will deliver a speech Thursday at a rally in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where an air force flyer is also expected.

Events are taking place across the country, adding Hong Kong, which commemorates its 1997 passage from British control to Chinese control.

China has severely repressed freedom of expression and political opposition in the territory, while rejecting all external complaints and sanctions imposed on its leaders.

Thursday’s occasions are the culmination of weeks of ceremonies and exhibits praising the role of nearly 92 million party members in the country’s quality of life and in restoring China’s economic, political and military influence abroad.

While the progress basically goes back to the economic reforms followed by Deng Xiaoping 4 decades ago, the celebrations highlight the role of Xi, who has established himself as China’s top hard leader since Mao Zedong, who founded the People’s Republic in 1949 after cutting the force in between. of the civil war . .

Xi, 68, leads the government and armed forces and has removed his term limits. He is expected to begin a third five-year term as leader next year.

While Mao and other former leaders also appear, the centennial celebrations appear designed according to Xi’s credentials, as they have made key gains in poverty alleviation and economic progress while raising China’s global profile and status to the West.

With more achievements for the party on the world stage, Xi is preparing China for a protracted fight with the United States, said Robert Sutter of the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University.

“In foreign affairs, this implies an expansion of wealth and power, as China is burdened while pursuing its own self-centered political goals at the expense of others and the dominant global order,” Sutter said.

Although the party does not face serious situations that demand its government, its legitimacy to govern has been questioned beyond mistakes such as the mass famine of the Great Leap Forward in the 1950s and early 1969s, the war of violent elegance and xenophobia of the years 1966-1976 The Cultural Revolution and the bloody repression of the pro-democracy motion directed against Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

More recently, China has been criticized and punished for detained more than a million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities for political re-education in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, and for imprisoning or intimidating to silence what it considers to be possible warring parties to Tibet in Hong. Kong.

The party’s official narrative ignores beyond existing mistakes or controversies, emphasizing development, stability and power, adding its good fortune to COVID-19 at home, contrary to what it describes as political disputes, a waste of pandemic measures and social conflicts in the multiparty system. Democracies.

The party’s determination to mention beyond shortcomings shows that it might not be as sure of itself about its legitimacy to govern as it projects, said June Teuful Dreyer, an expert at the University of Miami in China.

“What are they afraid of? In short, can this large self-orchestrated pat on the back be a sign of deeper insecurity?” says Teuful Dreyer.

While Mao called for the abandonment or total destruction of classical culture, religion, class, and social norms, the party now downplays its revolutionary history and “defines itself as a representative of all that is in the Chinese tradition,” said Anthony Saich of Harvard Kennedy University. . school.

“The celebrations will serve to legitimize Xi as the heir of mao zedong herbs, deng xiaoping, etc. , and pave the way for the party’s congress next year,” Saich said.

“It will foster a sense of national pride in their achievements, which are a source of legitimacy in today’s era. “

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