Shanghai, China – Chinese President Xi Jinping told crowds in Beijing that china’s “intimidated” era was over and that anyone trying to separate the Chinese party from others was doomed to failure as the Chinese Communist Party celebrated its centennial.

Speaking from the balcony about Mao Zedong’s portrait in Tiananmen Square, Xi spoke for more than an hour about the party’s successes since its founding in Shanghai in 1921.

In a confident speech, accompanied by senior leaders, past and present, he explained how he had freed China from an “exploitative” feudal system, created a “vibrant socialist market economy,” and eliminated absolute poverty.

“Only socialism can save China, and only socialism with Chinese characteristics can expand China,” said Xi, who dressed in a dark gray Mao-style suit.

The Chinese Communist Party defeated the nationalists in the country’s civil war in 1949 and Mao Zedong declared the People’s Republic of China with the aim of lifting others out of overwhelming poverty. China is now the world’s second-largest economy, and Xi is the country’s. top hard leader since Mao Zedong.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (center) on the balcony above a giant portrait of Mao Zedong [Ng Han Guan/AP Photo] The celebrations took place while Beijing was under pressure on the industry – where tensions with countries such as the United States and Australia increased – and their policies in Xinjiang’s Far West, as well as in Hong Kong and Tibet. There are also questions about the COVID-19 pandemic, which has emerged in the central city of Wuhan and continues to wreak havoc around the world.

At the head of a confident party and nation, Xi warned that any attempt to separate the party from others was “doomed to failure. “

While China “appreciated friendly advice from around the world,” Xi said the country would not settle for “arrogant conferences. “

The loudest applause and cheers came here when Xi declared that the other Chinese people “would no longer allow any extraterrestrial force to intimidate and oppress us,” and that whoever tried to do so would be “severely beaten by the perseverance of the Chinese nation. “”

“No one underestimates the will and strength of the Chinese country to fight the force opposed to the foreign one,” Xi said.

When Xi delivered his speech in Beijing, social media was filled with celebrating messages.

Touchdown pages on nearly every social media platform featured meticulously crafted birthday party posters; on the WeChat Moments feed, roughly equivalent to the Facebook news feed, other people posted congratulatory messages and photos, with words like “happy birthday, our wonderful CCP”; and on Weibo, China’s Twitter-style social media platform, CCP’s centenary subjects swept the list of elegant topics, with the #CCPTurns100Today theme gargle with more than five billion views.

The centennial celebrations in Beijing began with an aerial parade in which about 30 army planes formed a “hundred” in the sky above the jubilant crowd. There were also trumpets and horns exploding communist songs, and bursts of a hundred shots were fired into the sky. sky extravagant celebrations of national pride.

The party’s centennial celebrations take place in Beijing and the country [Roman Pilipey/EPA] At airports and exercise stations, on billboards, posters and propaganda fabrics on television and social media, China has become the red of the communist party.

In Longnan, in northwestern Gansu province, a transit point for Chinese Communist Party fighters during the Great March of 1934, party flags were hung on the roof of each and every house and giant hammer and sickle statues erected weeks before July 1.

The city has a popular position for “red tourism”.

“We are all proud of the party members and look to come here to pay tribute to the previous generation of revolutionaries,” said Guan, a member of Shan’xi’s party in Al Jazeera, as he posed for a photo with an organization of other party members on a city tour in front of a giant hammer and sickle.

Longnan is the only city celebrating the anniversary of the country’s ruling party.

The entire country mobilized to watch the day, from the giant city of Shanghai where the CCP was founded and the party’s first congress was convened, to the small towns of Xinjiang, where Beijing has been accused of suppressing the rights of the Uighur ethnic minority.

Despite the general atmosphere of exuberance, there were court cases in which arrangements for the occasion hampered daily life. Special security checks were installed for travelers to Beijing before the celebration, roads surrounding Tiananmen were closed for days, and police and paramilitary forces are stationed in almost every corner of the city.

Wu, a Shanghai-based music concert organizer, said nearly all of her independent concerts were canceled in June and July because of the “special period” it demands “vigorous about what could be afforded. “

Major political venues, such as towns along Long March Road, have become popular spots for “red tourism” on the party’s centennial. Here, an organization of tourists dressed in replica Red Army uniforms shout slogans at the Yingshan Long March Spirit Experience Park in Huanggang. , hubei central province [Stringer/AFP] – but at least they shouldn’t cancel so many music festivals and concerts,” said Wu, who requested anonymity. I don’t perceive how delicate it is. “

For Fu, a photographer from Anhui province, the biggest restrictions prevented him from buying a drone, which affected his work. As of June 11, all online platforms must remove recreational drones from the market position due to “relevant regulatory requirements,” and measures remain in place until July 15.

“I’ve gotten used to those kinds of unnecessary and ridiculous measures,” Fu said, asking to be known only through a pseudonym. “I just hope to be able to buy drones soon so I can get back to work. “

For the ruling party, however, the effort is.

For China’s leaders, the real challenge remains abroad, where Beijing faces growing complaint and scrutiny only from Xinjiang but also from Hong Kong, where it has been accused of decimating rights and freedoms guaranteed when the territory returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

On the continent, however, the Communist Party is getting an almost unprecedented point of compliment and loyalty.

“Without the Communist Party, there would be no new China,” says a famous Communist Party song. A century after the party was founded, this is a sentiment that turns out to be widely shared among the Chinese people, whether or not they are members. of the party.

Planes fly in formation in a parade marking the Chinese Communist Party’s centennial in Beijing [Wu Hong/EPA] Data released Wednesday shows the party’s membership rose to 2. 43 million last year, the largest accumulation since President Xi in 2013. .

“I’m very proud to be a member of the party, and I’m very proud to be Chinese,” one Weibo user commented on the live stream of the birthday party in Tiananmen Square. “Under the leadership of the CCP, we can do nothing!

She has put a lot of emphasis on protecting women, but the higher the role, the fewer women there are.

China celebrates the centennial of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1.

Once forced into a quiet existence, the Communist Party of China has become increasingly assertive in the territory.

China’s economy faces demanding situations ranging from falling birth rates and income inequality to the opportunity gap.

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