China's Communist Party will celebrate its 100th birthday
China will mark the centenary of the founding of its ruling Communist Party on Thursday (Jul 1) with pomp, spectacle, and what state media described as an "important" speech by President Xi Jinping in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
Xi, China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, and the party are riding high as the country recovers briskly from the COVID-19 outbreak and takes a more assertive stand on the global stage. State media has revealed little about the event amid heightened security and secrecy in the Chinese capital, but a flyby of fighter jets and helicopters is expected. Party elders and retired leaders typically appear on major occasions.
Over the past 100 years, the party has "written a splendid chapter in the history of the Chinese nation's development and that of humanity's progress", Xi said on Tuesday in a ceremony honoring exemplary party members. Since coming to power as general secretary of the party in late 2012. and president in March 2013, Xi has cracked down on corruption that eroded the party's moral authority, and cemented himself as China's most powerful leader since Mao with the abolition of presidential term limits.
