Can’t bully China: Xi issues warning
President Xi Jinping describes country as a “great wall of steel” as China’s ruling party hosts 100th year celebrations
BEIJING: President Xi Jinping on Thursday warned that his country’s enemies will find themselves on a collision course with a “great wall of steel” if they attempt to bully China. He made the sharp comments in a speech delivered in Beijing amid celebrations marking 100 years of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC).
In an hour-long address at the Tiananmen Square to mark the party’s centenary, Xi pledged to build up China’s military and said Beijing was committed to the “reunification” of Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that China considers a breakaway region.
Considered to be China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, Xi is the general secretary of the CPC and head of the central military commission.
Referring to the current turbulence in Hong Kong, Xi - wearing a Mao-style grey suit and flanked by past and present members of the CPC’S leadership - said social stability would be ensured in the special administrative region while protecting China’s sovereignty.
Xi’s speech comes in the backdrop of mounting international criticism of China on alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet, an ongoing crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and what western countries claim as Beijing’s deliberate attempt to blur the Covid-19 pandemic’s origin.
Despite facing severe international criticism, China is known to have been successful in controlling the Covid-19 outbreak domestically, while its economy is recovering rapidly, giving Beijing more confidence to be assertive globally.
That confidence showed in Xi’s speech. Chinese state media put the number of people who attended the early morning event at 70,000.
A loud round of cheering rippled through the crowd when Xi mentioned the “great wall of steel”. “We Chinese are a people who uphold justice and are not intimidated by threats of force,” he said. “We have never bullied, oppressed or subjugated the people of any other country, and we never will. By the same token, we 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.”