This week marked the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CCP), an important moment for the Party to highlight its historic experiences and “glorious achievements” over the past century.

All over the country, the centennial celebrations have been in full swing. Light shows, exhibitions, ceremonies, and concerts were taking place from Beijing to Shanghai, from Harbin to Xi’an. Virtually every region, city, and village in the country was doing something to pay tribute to the Party. At the Gansu Dunhuang Solar Park, they even mobilized over 3700 solar panels to move simultaneously to wish the Communist Party a happy 100th (see tweet thread below).

Another viral #CPC100 spectacle – they decided to mobilize a sea of solar mirrors (over 3700) at the Gansu Dunhuang Solar Park to move simultaneously to wish the Communist Party a happy 100th. 😳 pic.twitter.com/bfGiMf6HYj

— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) July 1, 2021

Although the Communist Party’s birthday is July 1st, the entire week leading up to this was filled with events and Party-related news. In Chinese media and on social media, the anniversary was a major topic, with state media and official accounts continuously publishing all kinds of content related to the Communist Party centenary celebrations.

Chinese social media platform Weibo was completely themed around the 100-year anniversary during the celebration week. A special ‘100 Year CPC’ discovery button, specially dedicated labels for posts about the Party, and a Party-themed color palette for the platform – it was all there.

Hashtags such as “100 Years of CPC” (#中国共产党100周年#), “Tribute to the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Party” (#献礼建党一百周年#), “100 Years of Struggle” (#百年奋斗#), “Celebrating the 100th Party-Founding Anniversary” (#庆祝建党100周年#), “The Centenary of Party Founding” (#建党百年#), “Why They Founded the Party” (#他们为什么建党#), and “Which Scene of the Party’s 100th-anniversary Celebration Impressed You the Most” (#建党100周年庆祝大会哪一幕令你印象深刻#) were all major topics.

On July 1st, the top six trending topics according to the site’s hotlist were all Party-related.

One of the highlights of the (online) celebrations was the July 1st hour-long speech from Tiananmen Square by President Xi Jinping, in which he spoke about the Party leadership, Chinese history, and the journey ahead.

One of the main themes that was highlighted throughout the celebrations, and also in Xi’s speech, is the idea of the “glorious journey” or the “glorious history” (光辉历程) of the Communist Party of China over the past century.

The most-used words in this speech, in English translation, are the ‘Party’, the ‘people,’ and the ‘Chinese nation.’ These three terms are the overarching theme of the centennial celebrations, during which the Party, the Chinese people, and national identity are continuously tied together in one narrative.

Wordcloud of Xi Jinping’s July 1st speech (by whatsonweibo/wordart).

China Youth Daily even dedicated a hashtag page to the fact that Xi mentioned ‘the People’ a total of 83 times (#习近平近万字讲话83次提到人民#). During one point in the speech, Xi said that “the people are the true heroes, for it is they who create history.”

Various parts of the speech were turned into digital posters by state media outlets and shared all over social media.

Parts of Xi’s speech were turned into digital images and spread across social media by state media outlets.

One of the most noteworthy moments in Xi’s speech was when he used strong language saying the Chinese will never allow foreign influences to bully or oppress them again.

Noteworthy Xi Jinping speech moment, strong language saying the Chinese will never allow foreign influences to bully or oppress them again. #CPC100

(“中国人民也绝不允许任何外来势力欺负、 压迫、 奴役我们。谁妄想这样干，必将在1 4亿多中国人民用血肉筑成的钢铁长城面前碰得头破血流.”) pic.twitter.com/6vT590Obzo

— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) July 1, 2021

Xinhua translated this part of the speech as:

“We Chinese are a people who uphold justice and are not intimidated by threats of force. As a nation, we have a strong sense of pride and confidence. 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.”

One of the idioms used by Xi Jinping was that of “tóupòxiěliú” (“头破血流”). Although the Xinhua translation uses the English “find themselves on a collision course,” the Chinese wording is stronger than that and led to many discussions on Twitter on how the words were translated and misinterpreted in English. Its literal translation would be ‘head broken and blood flowing,’ but its actual meaning arguably is more like ‘suffer a crushing.’

On Weibo, that segment of Xi’s speech was highlighted by the social media account of People’s Daily, receiving more than 700,000 likes, and by the CCTV Weibo account, where the video received over 2.2 million likes.

Some parts of that segment even became hashtags, namely “The Chinese People Will Never Allow Foreign Forces to Bully Them” and “Whoever Tries to Bully China Will be Crushed” (#中国人民绝不允许任何外来势力欺负# and #谁妄想欺负中国必将碰得头破血流#). Those hashtag pages received 290 million and 1.1 billion views, respectively.

As the online censorship apparatus was running at full speed this week, critical comments on the speech were hard to find, but there were thousands of Weibo users praising Xi’s words.

“My eyes just teared up, my love for this country is so deep. I love you China!”

“When we heard the Chairman say this, our entire office just spontaneously stood up and clapped, I couldn’t help but feel like crying!”

There were also those who applied the sentence “Whoever Tries to Bully China Will be Crushed” to real-life examples. Fashion brand H&M was mentioned for its boycott of Xinjiang cotton (read here), after which the company saw its sales in China slump.

Some called Xi’s speech “a declaration of the people.” The idea of a confident China that will not put up with foreign interference in its internal affairs was clearly visible on Chinese social media, reiterated by state media, during the 100-year Party celebrations, and in the months leading up to this event.

“As a Chinese person, [this speech] made me really proud and confident,” one Weibo commenter wrote, with another person commenting: “I was applauding in my head the whole time.”

In some Weibo threads, only a selected number of comments were available to read, while virtually all comments were censored on other posts. The online censorship showed how comments that, perhaps, were less positive about the speech, were not welcome for the celebrations of the Party anniversary.

The full text of Xi Jinping’s July 1st speech is available via Xinhua here.

You might also be interested to read:

• Digital Art or Visual Propaganda? China’s New Wave of Online Political Satire
• Chinese Fashion First: Consumer Nationalism and ‘China Chic’ 
• Answering Five Big Questions on the ‘Study Xi’ App
• “Love the Motherland” – New Moral Guidelines for Chinese Performers Come Into Force
• Here’s Xi the Cartoon – Online Animations Are China’s New ‘Propaganda Posters’

By Manya Koetse (@manyapan)
Follow @whatsonweibo

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