Xi’s speech seen favorably by foreign experts, onlookers
Top leader sends warning to anyone attempting to split the CPC, people
President Xi Jinping’s remarks at the centenary celebration of the Communist Party of China on Thursday demonstrate not only its success but also the CPC’s invincible will to fulfill the historic mandate of the people for national rejuvenation, foreign experts said.
Addressing a ceremony in Beijing on Thursday, Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said China’s national rejuvenation is a “historical inevitability” and the Chinese people will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress or subjugate them.
The message “is very clear that the Chinese people are determined”, said Henry Chan, visiting senior research fellow at the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace. “In the face of foreign challenges, they are confident that the Chinese way of socialism is going to work.”
Chan said that an important message is that any attempt to split the CPC from the Chinese people will not work. “The CPC is going to lead the Chinese people to fulfill the historic mandate that the people expect,” he said.
Irfan Shahzad Takalvi, founding president of the Eurasian Century Institute, a think tank based in Islamabad, Pakistan, said the speech showed the confidence of the CPC. “This confidence is about having a very successful, viable, workable and feasible model for running the governance of a state,” he said.
Noting that Xi reemphasized the importance of building a community of a shared future for mankind, Takalvi said Xi “has been drawing the attention of the world to the significance of global multilateral cooperation for years”, with the Belt and Road Initiative an example of such cooperation.
Austin Ong, founding president of the Philippines-China Friendship Club, said the Southeast Asian country is a direct beneficiary of the BRI and China’s good-neighbor policy.
“The 21st century’s challenges will need a whole-of-humanity approach that no one country can solve alone,” Ong said. “China’s role under CPC leadership will be more important than ever for the world to recover and progress together.”
Noting Xi mentioned that China would continue to work with foreign countries under the aegis of the initiative, Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said this is a “welcome development” and he hopes China will double its trade and investments with neighboring countries.
“China has become a moderately prosperous society. That’s no small feat for a developing country which has the world’s largest population,” said Oh, adding that China has set a good example for the rest of the developing world.
In his speech, Xi, also China’s president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, announced: “We have realized the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects … and we are now marching in confident strides toward the second centenary goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects.”
Korn Dabbaransi, president of the Thai-Chinese Friendship Association, said he has personally experienced the amazing transformation in China during his 155 visits, and “the CPC is globally praised for this success”.
“Since July 1, 1921, the CPC has been, and still is, the most important vehicle that leads the people of China to the above-the-poverty-line living standard that they are all enjoying today,” said the former deputy prime minister of Thailand.
George Siy, chairman emeritus of the Association of Young Chinese-Filipino Entrepreneurs in Manila, said, “China under the CPC is proving to be one of humanity’s greatest miracle stories and a viable, dynamic model of development for nations around the world.”
The Chinese leader’s “direct message of guidance and inspiration to the youth signals that although many challenges remain, there’s much optimism to look forward to,” Siy said.
Haruo Nishihara, former president of Waseda University in Japan, said the development of China is a constant work in progress and he has been lucky to witness it.
“I have visited China 89 times and have seen the transformations of many places from rural to urban society,” the 93-year-old legal scholar and educator said. “What leads the way are numerous CPC members and what gives each new generation purpose is taking up the unfinished work of the last and carrying it further than anyone might have thought possible.”
Yan An, former chairman of the Union of Chinese Residing in Japan, said the spirit of resilience and the faith of realizing national rejuvenation in its founding had seen the CPC through more pain and tragedy than most other political parties will ever know.
“Hearing what Xi said, I would like to spare no efforts to make contributions to the great rejuvenation by doing my part to promote cultural exchange,” he said.