BEIJING: In an opening address to 2,300 delegates at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed China’s rise as a global power and demanded unity around his leadership as the twice-in-a-decade Communist Party Congress began on October 16.
“Unity is strength, and victory requires unity,” President Xi said as he walked walking onstage to a thunderous reception from the attendees who will vote during the week-long Congress on the party leadership for the next five years. Unveiling his vision of China’s emerging status as a global power, Xi said: “China’s international influence, appeal and power to shape the world has significantly increased”.
In an upbeat tone, with the world watching, Xi underlined that the great transformation over the past 10 years of the new era marks a milestone in the history of the Communist Party of China, of the People’s Republic of China, of reform and opening up, of the development of socialism, and of the development of the Chinese nation. “Over the course of a century of endeavor, the CPC has tempered itself through revolution and grown stronger,” said Xi at the opening session of the 20th CPC National Congress. “As we have upheld and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics, the Party has always remained a strong leadership core,” Xi said. The Chinese people are more inspired than ever to forge ahead, more resolved than ever to work hard, and more confident than ever of securing success, he said. “With full confidence, the CPC and the Chinese people are driving the great transformation of the Chinese nation from standing up and growing prosperous to becoming strong,” Xi said. The CPC has advanced reform, opening up, and socialist modernization. “The rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is now on an irreversible historical course,” Xi said. “Scientific socialism is brimming with renewed vitality in 21st-century China. Chinese modernization offers humanity a new choice for achieving modernization,” Xi said. The CPC and the Chinese people have provided humanity with more Chinese insight, better Chinese input, and greater Chinese strength to help solve its common challenges and have made new and greater contributions to the noble cause of human peace and development, he said.
