Editor’s note for July 1, 2021

Thoughts from Lucas, filling in for Jeremy this week:

Our word of the day is great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation (中华民族伟大复兴 zhōnghuá mínzú wěidà fùxīng), also shortened as “national rejuvenation” in English translation, and the most-mentioned catchphrase in Xi’s CCP centenary speech.

The phrase also features in a slick 11-minute propaganda video (in Chinese, with some English titles), titled “navigating toward national rejuvenation” (复兴·领航 fùxīng lǐngháng), which previewed some of the themes of Xi’s speech a day before he gave it.

Both the video and the speech give a predictably simplified version of China’s modern history and development, sanitized of almost any mention of troubled spots in the CCP’s past or present (though Xi does mention “combating corruption” in Party ranks as a continued priority).

For a more wide-ranging examination of the Party’s first 100 years and where China could be headed under CCP rule in the coming decades, see:

• From Sneevliet to Xi: How Chinese communism has endured and evolved over 100 years, a complete transcript of this week’s Sinica Podcast featuring a discussion with three chapter contributors to the new book, The Chinese Communist Party: A Century in 10 Lives.
• Can China keep rising?, the most recent issue of Foreign Affairs, with seven essays by renowned scholars, including Tsinghua University’s Yán Xuétōng 阎学通 and Peking University’s Wáng Jīsī 王缉思.

—Lucas Niewenhuis, Newsletter Editor (lucas@thechinaproject.com)