This week, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) celebrated its hundredth anniversary with a powerful statement of self-confidence. What began as an offshoot of the Soviet Komintern with only 50 members now has over 95 million. The party’s imperious rule from Beijing has lasted since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. From the assurance on show at this week’s birthday celebrations, it was abundantly clear that dominance is not ending any time soon.
General Secretary Xi Jinping struck a militant tone as he addressed a huge crowd at Tiananmen Square on Thursday. Wearing a grey Mao-esque suit, he warned against ‘sanctimonious preaching from those who feel they have the right to lecture us’. The CCP would never allow anyone ‘to bully, oppress, or subjugate [China]’, and those who would do so would ‘find their head broken and blood flowing against a great wall of steel built with the flesh and blood of more than 1.4
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