At 100, Communist Party looks to cement its future
BEIJING — For China’s Communist Party, celebrating its 100th birthday today is not just about glorifying its past. It’s also about cementing its future and that of its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In the build-up to the July 1 anniversary, Mr Xi and the party have exhorted its members and the nation to remember the early days of struggle in the hills of the inland city of Yan’an, where Mao Zedong established himself as party leader in the 1930s.
Dug into earthen cliffs, the primitive homes where Mao and his followers lived are now tourist sites for the party faithful and schoolteachers encouraged to spread the word. The cave-like rooms feel far removed from Beijing, the modern capital where national festivities are being held, and the skyscrapers of Shenzhen and other high-tech centers on the coast that are more readily associated with today’s China.
Yet in marking its centenary, the Communist Party is using this past — selectively — to try to ensure its future and that of Mr Xi, who may be eyeing, as Mao did, ruling for life.
“By linking the party to all of China’s accomplishments of the past century, and none of its failures, Xi is trying to bolster support for his vision, his right to lead the party and the party’s right to govern the country,” said Elizabeth
Economy, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
This week’s celebrations focus on two distinct eras — the early struggles and recent achievements — glossing over the nearly three decades under Mao from the 1950s to 1970s, when mostly disastrous social and economic policies left millions dead and the country impoverished. To that end, a spectacular outdoor gala attended by Mr Xi in Beijing on Monday night relived the Long March of the 1930s — a retreat to Yan’an that has become of party lore — before moving on to singing men holding giant wrenches and women with bushels of wheat.
But it also focused on the present, with representations of special forces climbing a mountain and medical workers battling COVID-19 in protective gear.
The party has long invoked its history to justify its right to rule, said Joseph Fewsmith, a professor of Chinese politics at Boston University.
Shoring up its legitimacy is critical since the party has run China singlehandedly for more than 70 years — through the chaotic years under Mao, through the collapse of the Soviet Union and through the unexpected adoption of market-style reforms that over time have built an economic powerhouse, though millions remain in poverty.