Users on the app, which provides a one-stop shop for news about Mr. Nationalism, for the Party, has certainly emerged as a powerful asset, a theme carefully nurtured by State propaganda that relentlessly portrays the Party as the defender of Chinese pride in the face of an unceasing onslaught from “hostile foreign forces” in all directions.Īn example of how this messaging appealed to younger Chinese is the launch of an app that became the country’s most widely used in 2019, called ‘Study to build a powerful country’ (Or “ xuexi qiangguo”, which, intentionally, can alternatively be read as “study from Xi, build a powerful country”). Xi has settled on “rejuvenation”, which is essentially an appeal to nationalist sentiment. Xi and the Party leadership believed they needed to address a sense of drift and a widening chasm between the Party and the people, with Communism and Maoism fading as an ideological tether. After three decades of a focus on economic growth, Mr. Xi, declared a third “new era”, turning the page from the Deng Xiaoping era (which followed the first Mao era) where the emphasis was not on showing strength but as Deng famously put it, “biding time” and “hiding strength”. Xi has, more than his predecessors, emphasised the idea of “revival” and of a “strong country” (“ qiangguo”). In China’s more recent history, however, Mr. Indeed, even Sun Yat-sen, who became the first President of the Republic of China in 1912, founded a “Revive China society” as early as 1894. To be sure, the idea of China’s “rejuvenation” long predates Mr. Xi, who completes 10 years in office this year and will begin an unprecedented third-term at a once-in-five-year Party Congress likely in October, has since taking over emphasised the “Chinese dream” (“ zhongguo meng”) of “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” as a central theme. Xi, while touring the exhibition, hailed what he called a “historically great achievement” in national defence, and called on the military to make “persistent efforts to provide strategic support for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” And, the message conveyed, key to ensuring the army remained strong was who, in Mao’s words, controlled the gun - the Party and Mr. Xi, which received the biggest display, including everything from China’s three aircraft carriers to its “carrier-killing” missiles.įor China, which suffered in the early 20th century both internal turmoil and humiliation by outside powers, a strong army was the only guarantor of both stability and national pride. The message was direct, conveyed in four sprawling exhibits - each focusing on key periods in the PLA’s history, from the revolutionary era to its current modernisation in the past decade under Mr. ![]() The PLA, which turned 95 on August 1, was marking the “double anniversaries” - the CPC turned 100 last year - with an expansive tribute to itself. On July 28, China’s President and Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping visited the Military Museum, a massive Soviet-style complex in west Beijing that abuts the headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
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