A grand gathering celebrating the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was held in Beijing on July 1, in which Chinese President and General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping delivered a speech.
 

 

Scholars of philosophy and the social sciences praised a speech delivered by Chinese President and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping on July 1 at an event marking the 95th founding anniversary of the CPC in Beijing, saying the far-sighted address offers guidance to the Party as it works to fulfill its historical mission.

 

“All comrades of the Party should stay true to the mission and forge ahead in the face of the future and challenges,” Xi stressed.

“Xi’s words have profound theoretical meaning and practical significance. We shouldn’t operate under the false notion that Marxism and communism have been rendered obsolete or abandon them. Instead, we should, with full confidence in the Chinese path, theory, system and culture, keep in mind why we founded the CPC while continuing to localize Marxism in China in theory and practice,” said Cheng Enfu, director of the Academic Division of Marxism at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and CASS Member.

Reviewing different opinions from China and abroad about the nation’s development path, Xie Chuntao, a professor from the Party History Teaching and Research Department at the Central Party School, said, “We shouldn’t be distracted by the noise, but ‘stay true to the mission and forge ahead.’”

It is vital to make sense of the Chinese path from historical and developmental perspectives and strive to better interpret it by improving our own work, enhancing the ability to tell Chinese stories and accelerating the construction of philosophy and the social sciences with Chinese characteristics, Xie said.

On March 23, 1949, Mao Zedong said “Today we are going to Beijing and take the major examination” at Xibaipo Township in Hebei Province before departing for the city, Xi noted.

 

More than 60 years of practice has proven that the CPC has performed well in the test of history, Xi said, calling on the whole Party to remain modest, prudent and free from arrogance and rashness in its style of work and to preserve the style of plain living and hard work in a bid to better serve the people and write a better history.

Yan Xiaofeng, a research fellow from the Institute of Marxism at the PLA National Defense University, pointed out the need to strengthen Party self-discipline. Only in this way can the 95-year-old CPC, the world’s largest party, with more than 88 million members and in power for 67 years consecutively, maintain its progressiveness and purity, withstand various tests and live long in history, Yan said.

All generations of the CPC central leadership have arduously explored the construction of the ruling party and put forward a series of important ideas, providing powerful support for Party construction and advancing its causes, said Yang Jun, a professor from the Teaching and Research Department of Party History and Construction at the Party School of Shanghai Committee of the CPC. 

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, Xi has repeatedly called for close integration of building the Party ideologically and managing it institutionally for strict governance in the new situation, pinpointing scientific methods and effective paths to promote Party construction, Yang said. 

 

Huo Wenqi and Ming Haiying are reporters at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.