Ready to welcome myriad domestic and foreign tourists over the coming days, Tian’anmen Square, the political heart of China and no stranger to pomp and ceremony, has been given a festive makeover featuring an 18-meter-high flower basket centerpiece.
The square is pulsating with vitality as children frolic around waving national flags, youngsters proudly display the national flag stickers on their cheeks, and the elderly hum along to the patriotic melody of “Ode to My Homeland.”
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) on Tuesday marked its 75th founding anniversary. From bustling cities like Beijing, where the streets are lined with fluttering national flags and floral displays, to the doorways of communities and neighborhoods adorned with lanterns and Chinese knots, similar scenes were seen across the country.
On the morning of the National Day, Tian’anmen Square was full of people gathered to witness the national flag-raising ceremony, one of the most symbolic events to celebrate the birthday of the PRC.
At 6:11 a.m., as the flag was raised, over 120,000 spectators in the square sang the national anthem. Doves and balloons were released, and tears glistened in many eyes. Many others, unable to attend in person, tuned in to the live broadcast on state media.
Zhang Yan was dwarfed in stature but not in style. Wearing an ornate silver headpiece and crescent-shaped necklace, the traditional attire of Miao, one of the 56 ethnic groups of the Chinese nation, she sang a song familiar to most Chinese, “Today is Your Birthday, My Motherland.”
“As our homeland flourishes, so do we,” said the 37-year-old woman. “Everyone, regardless of ethnicity, could play a part in the country’s progress.”
On the eve of the National Day, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior leaders paid their respects to fallen heroes by laying flower baskets at the Monument to the People’s Heroes.
A day before that, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conferred national medals and national honorary titles on recipients of the highest state honors at the Great Hall of the People.
A total of 15 people, including scientists, teachers, medics, a veteran war hero, a border patrolman, a legendary ping-pong coach and an acclaimed actress, were awarded.
Honoring these role models, Xi made a rallying call to make China stronger.
“All Party members and people of all ethnic groups should take heroes and role models as examples, unite and strive forward to form a mighty force to build a strong China,” Xi said.
GREAT CHANGES
On this very day 75 years ago, the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong stood on Tian’anmen Rostrum and declared the birth of the people’s republic, marking a watershed moment in the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization.
The past seven decades saw China rise from a poor country to the world’s second-largest economy and a major country moving ever closer to the center stage of the globe.
Just days before the National Day, Xi said China, under the CPC’s leadership, has achieved the twin miracles of rapid economic growth and long-term social stability over the past 75 years.
China’s average annual GDP growth rate since it began reform and opening up in 1978 has stood at about 9 percent. The country has firmly become a global manufacturing powerhouse. The list of Made-in-China products continues to grow, now including large passenger aircraft and electric vehicles among the latest additions.
The average Chinese have become richer, with per capita disposable income rising 76-fold in real terms. The average life expectancy of Chinese has more than doubled from 35 to 78.
“The earthshaking changes have taken place in China,” Xi said, reasserting that national rejuvenation is on an irreversible historical course.
Notably, the country has eliminated absolute poverty and built the world’s largest systems in social security, education, and healthcare.
Over the past 75 years, China has undergone the largest and fastest urbanization process in world history. Historically an agrarian country, China now has urban residents outnumbering those in rural areas by a considerable margin.
“China’s development has shattered what once seemed like a fate destined for generations,” said Qin Chuan, playwright of the acclaimed musical Dongguan East, which tells the story of millions of rural youth migrating to factory towns like Dongguan in search of work, eventually settling down as new urbanites.
From a nation with limited paved roads and half of its 21,800-kilometer railways paralyzed, China has grown into an infrastructure giant. It now boasts the world’s largest high-speed railway network and expressway network.
With an endeavor to promote high-end, intelligent and high-quality development, China saw an upward trajectory in its science and technology development.
“Spring has come once again for China’s sci-tech sector,” said prominent Chinese physicist Xue Qikun, who is known internationally for his significant contributions to quantum science.
“In the field of quantum fundamental research, China has reached a world-class level in both research standards and talent quality,” he said.
China’s rapid development has once caused severe environmental woes. But that has become a thing of the past, thanks to the epic fight against pollution and a shift to green development.
Nationwide, the number of days with severe air pollution has dropped 83 percent over the past decade. According to official statistics, the public’s satisfaction with the environment rose from less than 80 percent in 2017 to over 91 percent in 2023.
Dilma Rousseff, president of the New Development Bank and former Brazilian president, said economic transformation, technological innovation, and extraordinary social development have propelled China to become a beacon of hope and inspiration for the world.
JOURNEY AHEAD
As the PRC celebrates its 75th anniversary, the country is 11 years away from its goal of realizing socialist modernization, and 25 years from becoming a great modern socialist country in all respects by the mid-21st century.
To meet these goals, China has to address several challenges, such as achieving continued economic recovery and growth, overcoming bottlenecks in core technologies, tackling population aging, and reducing wealth inequality.
In July, a key CPC leadership plenum unveiled over 300 reform measures ranging from stimulating economic growth to improving people’s livelihood, in particular fostering new quality productive forces.
“New quality productive forces, especially high-tech and green industries, will become a major contributor to China’s future economic growth and technological breakthroughs,” said Zhang Shuhua, head of the Institute of Political Science, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
It is projected that pillar industries with an output of over 1 trillion U.S. dollars will emerge from sectors including artificial intelligence, green energy and biomedicine in China in the coming years.
While making “the pie” of social wealth bigger, China strives to divide it equitably. After eradicating absolute poverty, it has shifted the focus toward rural revitalization as part of its “common prosperity” agenda.
On the path to modernization, no one should be left behind, Xi said.
Xi has repeatedly said in advancing modernization, China will neither tread the old path of colonization and plunder, nor the crooked path taken by some countries to seek hegemony once they grow strong.
“China is becoming an engine of peace for the world,” said Prof. JC Iseux von Pfetten, chairman of the Institute for East-West Strategic Studies in Britain, who recognized China’s increasingly active role in maintaining peace.
China brokered a historic reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran last year, and the joint six-point consensus it has reached with Brazil on the Ukraine issue has gained recognition from a growing number of countries.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the country remains a magnet for foreigners seeking new business prospects and a better life.
Hungarian businessman Steven Back has been operating his museum digitalization company hitchhiking China’s rapid development in the past 19 years while living in Shanghai. He recently established a new venture. “I’m optimistic about the growth potential in China,” he said.
Addressing a grand reception on the eve of the National Day, Xi said that Chinese modernization has unfolded promising prospects after 75 years of strenuous efforts.
He cautioned about risks and challenges ahead, but asserted that no difficulties can impede the progress of the nation.
Chinese people will score more remarkable achievements and make greater contributions to the noble cause of peace and development of humanity, Xi added.
(Video reporters: Yang Siqi, Wu Siyang, Xu Wei, Liang Aiping, Si Xiaoshuai, Yin Jiajie, Liu Qinbing, Wang Xiao, Liang Xu, Mao Siqian, Zhong Zhuo, Wei Xiaohang, Bai Zhiqiang, Ma Xiaodong; Video editors: Li Chengyi, Liu Xiaorui, Zhu Jianhui, Zheng Xin, Zhang Nan) ■
