Chinese Communist Party 100th anniversary: Xi Jinping vows China will never be bullied – live updates

Our China affairs correspondent Vincent Ni has written about what today means for Xi and the CCP:

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Hong Kong’s acting chief executive, John Lee, said the city has returned to order from chaos since China imposed a sweeping national security law on the global financial hub last yea., the city’s acting chief executive, John Lee, said on Thursday.

Beijing imposed the security law just before midnight on 30 June last year to punish anything China deems as subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

The security law was Beijing’s first major step to put the global financial hub onto an authoritarian path, kick-starting a campaign dubbed “patriots rule Hong Kong,” which included moves to reduce democratic representation in the city’s legislature and various screening mechanisms for politicians.

Lee was speaking for the first time as acting city leader at a flag-raising ceremony marking the 24th anniversary of the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule in 1997, which coincides with the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Xi has wrapped up the speech, and the people are rising for the Internationale.

We’ll bring you a wrap of the speech and the significant sections of it shortly.

The key takeaways:

• Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has delivered a keynote speech to a reported crowd of 70,000 at a highly choreographed ceremony in Tiananmen Square, marking the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party.
• Xi declared the Chinese Communist Party has achieved its first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society for all, eradicating poverty
• The socialist system with Chinese characteristics is in a new era under his leadership, and only it can “save China”
• Xi pledged to grow the military to “world class standards”, to safeguard China’s national interests at home and in the region
• He pledged that China would not accept “sanctimonious preaching” by others, and it would not be “bullied, oppressed, or subjugated”. Anyone who tries “will find them on a collision course with a steel wall forged by 1.4 billion people.”
• He reiterated the commitment to “restore stability” to Hong Kong through the national security law, and to “restore” Taiwan to the nation of China.

He is pledging to “root out any elements who would harm the party’s purity… or viruses which would erode its health”.

Now to Hong Kong and Macau, which he says both retain a “high degree of autonomy”.

He’s emphasising the need to implement the legal and enforcement mechanisms to safeguard national security, and ensuring social stability.

“Restoring” Taiwan to China is an unshakeable commitment of the party, he says, reiterating previous statements but emphasising that this remains a key goal which is central to his leadership.

“All of us compatriots on both side of the Taiwan Strait must come together and move forward in unison. We must take resolution action to defeat any move towards Taiwan independence and create a bright future for national rejuvenation.”

“No one should underestimate the resolve, the will and ability of the Chinese people to define their national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he says.

This also gets a huge cheer.

Some images from the scene at Tiananmen Square:

The party cares about the future of humanity, Xi says, and he wants to move forward “with all progressive forces around the world” in the realms of global development and to preserve global order, and peace.

“We will work to build a new type of international relations… and promote high quality development of the belt and road initiative… and provide the world with new opportunities”.

He says they will champion cooperation over confrontation. This section of the speech sounds a little defensive. China has become increasingly isolated on the world stage, in part because of its actions towards regional neighbours like Taiwan – which it intends to take (by force if necessary) – and to neighbours which dispute China’s claims in the South China Sea.

Xi continues. China will “uphold justice and not be intimidated by threats of force”.

“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 anyone to bully, oppress, or subjugate [China]. Anyone who tries will find them on a collision course with a steel wall forged by 1.4 billion people.”

This gets the biggest cheer of the speech.

Xi is now getting into the military side of things.

He says a strong country must have a strong military to guarantee the security of the nation, and the PLA has made “indelible achievements”, and is a “strong pillar” in safeguarding the country and preserving national dignity, sovereignty and development interests, not just in China but in the region “and beyond”.

The party must maintain “absolute leadership” over the military, which must be grown and elevated “to world class standards”.

“We must make sure it is our people who govern the country, uphold the rule of law… and ensure wellbeing in the course of development,” Xi says, sounding like he’s wrapping up.

“We will not accept sanctimonious preaching from those who feel they have the right to lecture us.”

For this Xi received rapturous applause.

Xi namechecks previous leaders of the CCP, including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De and Deng Xiaoping, and other “revolutionaries who contributed greatly”.

“The Chinese people are not only good at destroying an old world, but also good at building a new world. Only socialism can save China, and only socialism with Chinese characteristics can develop China.”

Without the party there would be no new China or national rejuvenation, he says, and the leadership is “the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and constitutes the greatest strength of the system. It is the foundation and lifeblood of the party and the country, and the crux upon which the interests and wellbeing of all Chinese people depend.”

Xi extends his sincere greetings to compatriots in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, where there are secondary celebrations for both the CCP centenary and the anniversary of the handover of the city from the British to China in 1997…

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, is in Beijing. Her second in command, John Lee – promoted just a week ago – is delivering a speech at their ceremony instead, and delivering awards.

Two years ago on this day, mass protests filled the streets of Hong Kong. They’ve since ended, under a sweeping crackdown by authorities and the “introduction of a national security law – one year ago yesterday.

Xi is talking through China’s history of wars and aggression by foreign powers, and the uniting of the party and people in national rejuvenation to rebuild the country through socialist revolution.

“We eliminated the exploitative feudal system that had persisted in China for thousands of years and established socialism,” he says.

After the 18th national congress, this entered a “new era”, he says. The 18th national congress is when Xi became general party secretary.

Some context via AFP: Xi has cemented his eight-year rule through a personality cult, ending term limits and declining to anoint a successor. He has purged rivals and crushed dissent – from Uyghur Muslims and online critics to pro-democracy protests on Hong Kong’s streets.

At the same time, Xi has presented a defiant face to overseas rivals led by the US, revving up nationalist sentiment and marketing himself as the champion of a newfound Chinese pride.

Xi is speaking now.

He begins by extending congratulations to all party members.

“On this special occasion it is my honour to declare on behalf of the party and the people that through the continuous efforts of the whole party and entire nation, we have realised the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects,” he says.

“We have brought a historic resolution to the problem of poverty… in China,” he says, and they are moving towards a second centenary goal of becoming a more prosperous society.

We’re now hearing from the Communist Youth League, delivering a praising speech and pledging to fight for the cause of socialism, as Xi looks on. “Rest assured, we are the ones to make our country strong”.

12.55 million members of the CCP are under the age of 30. The youth “grew up in a period of China’s continuous high economic growth, they see their own living standards and China’s gradual strengthening as inevitable,” Wu Qiang, an independent Beijing-based political analyst, told AFP.

“They have little to no memory of famine or autocracy, they even have no memory of freedom.”

Tens of thousands have gathered in Tiananmen square.

A short time ago dozens of military helicopters and jets flew in formation through the Beijing skies, trailing flags and coloured smoke over the Square, where 56 cannons – representing the 56 ethnic groups of China – were fired 100 times to open the ceremony.

The celebrations have been a highly orchestrated affair, with little prior announcement of what was on the cards. A week before the date, Chinese flags blossomed overnight in Beijing neighbourhoods. Tiananmen Square was closed to the public from last week.

Surveillance and security measures increased, as they do ahead of politically significant days in China. Reuters reported police officers doorknocking to check household registrations and the number of occupants, tightened censorship directives at Bytedance and Baidu, and bans on some online traders shipping flammable products.

Whether or not related to the centenary, authorities had been increasing their crackdown on political criticism and dissidents for months. Among those arrested were people accused of “defaming” national heroes by questioning official accounts of the border clash between PLA and Indian troops over a year ago.

China’s president Xi Jinping is preparing to take the stage in Tiananmen Square to open centenary celebrations for the Chinese Communist Party, pulling on history to remind patriots at home and rivals abroad of China’s – and his own – irresistible rise.

In the summer of 1921, 13 young men severely disillusioned by China’s post-imperial development gathered in Shanghai to form a communist party. On 23 July, they convened in Shanghai’s French Concession and held the first “national congress”.

None of them would have thought that in 30 years’ time the organisation they had founded would rule the nation, or that in 100 years’ time it would be the world’s largest political party, with nearly 92 million members – today also an enigma to many outsiders.

On 1 July, as China celebrates the centenary, the political organisation that rules nearly every aspect of life inside the country has an ambition to reshape the postwar world order.

We’ll cover the ceremony and speeches here, and you can read the background from our China affairs correspondent, Vincent Ni, here.