China’s rise is ‘unstoppable,’ Xi declares in Tiananmen speech marking 100th anniversary of CCP

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officially became 100 years old today, and General Secretary Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 marked the occasion in the most Chinese communist of ways, donning a Mao suit and making a speech both jubilant and defiant from atop the gate at Tiananmen Square.

Xi’s message for the nation and the world: The Party is here to stay, inseparable from the Chinese people, and its guidance has been indispensable to China’s “rejuvenation” and now-unstoppable development.

Some key quotes from the speech, from the official Xinhua English translation (original Chinese here):

• China has “realized the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. This means that we have brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty in China, and we are now marching in confident strides toward the second centenary goal [in 2049] of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects.”
• “Over the past hundred years, the Party has united and led the Chinese people in writing the most magnificent chapter in the millennia-long history of the Chinese nation.” Xi later emphasized, “China’s success hinges on the Party,” and described the CCP’s leadership as the “crux upon which the interests and wellbeing of all Chinese people depend.”
• “Any attempt to divide the Party from the Chinese people or to set the people against the Party is bound to fail.”
• China will “welcome helpful suggestions and constructive criticism,” but “will not, however, accept sanctimonious preaching from those who feel they have the right to lecture us.”
• “The Chinese nation does not carry aggressive or hegemonic traits in its genes,” Xi asserted, later adding that China has “never bullied, oppressed, or subjugated the people of any other country.”
• The Chinese people “will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us. Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people.” (“On a collision course” is an anodyne official translation for the original Chinese, 头破血流 tóupòxuèliú, an idiom describing a violent battering and utter defeat.)
• Xi claimed that Hong Kong continues to have a “high degree of autonomy,” but added that the Party “will ensure that the central government exercises overall jurisdiction” over the territory to “safeguard national security” and “ensure social stability.”
• “Resolving the Taiwan question” and asserting PRC sovereignty over Taiwan is “an unshakable commitment of the Communist Party of China,” Xi said. The Party will work to advance a “peaceful” resolution to the Taiwan question, but China “must take resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt toward ‘Taiwan independence.’”
• “A century ago, China was in decline and withering away in the eyes of the world. Today, the image it presents to the world is one of a thriving nation that is advancing with unstoppable momentum toward rejuvenation.”

More on Xi’s speech, reaction to it, and the CCP’s 100th anniversary:

• China’s Xi pledges ‘reunification’ with Taiwan, gets stern rebuke / Reuters (porous paywall)
  “In response, Taiwan’s China policy-making Mainland Affairs Council said while the Communist Party had achieved ‘certain economic development’, it remained a dictatorship that trampled on people’s freedoms, and should embrace democracy instead.”
• Marking Party’s Centennial, Xi warns that China will not be bullied / NYT (paywall)
• In Beijing, pride and hopes for a stronger China on party centenary / Reuters (porous paywall)
• China marks party centenary with celebrations full of national pride / Sixth Tone
• As it turns 100, China’s ruling party grooms new faithful / AP