China: Xi Jinping hails Mao’s thoughts on his 130th birth anniversary

Leading the commemorations of Mao Zedong’s 130th birthday on Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping praised the idea that the founder of the Communist Party, which is currently in power, is a “invaluable spiritual wealth” and would always serve as the party’s inspiration. After his death, Deng Xiaoping’s extensive economic reforms, which made China the second-largest economy in the world after the US, eclipsed the ideas expressed in Mao’s Red Book, which had once echoed throughout the world and inspired Communist movements. Mao disapproved of private property, but Deng’s opaque Socialism with Chinese Characteristics allowed later Chinese leaders to expand changes. One such reform was the development of private property. Recent years have also seen the party theorists criticise aspects of Mao’s political and economic campaigns, most notably his disastrous Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), which claimed thousands of lives in the name of driving out traditionalists and capitalists. Every ten years, the Communist Party of China (CPC) commemorates Mao’s birthday. Since Xi is the first CPC leader to have led the party for three consecutive five-year terms since Mao, his speech this year was seen as particularly important. Similar to Mao, he was regarded as the “core leader,” which put him above the other party leaders and meant that he would likely keep the position for the remainder of his life. In a piece honouring Mao’s legacy this month, Qiushi, a preeminent CPC party theoretical journal, also celebrated the nation’s “good fortune” in having Xi back as the “core of the party and leader of the people,” as reported by the South China Morning Post newspaper in Hong Kong. Leading the celebrations, Xi gave a commemorative symposium at the Great Hall of the People, where he emphasised the need to advance the cause started by “Comrade Mao Zedong” and urged actions to pursue Chinese modernization in order to strengthen China and revitalise the Chinese people on all fronts. According to Xi, Mao’s life was devoted to promoting happiness among the populace, national prosperity, and revitalization. According to state-run Xinhua, Mao led the people in blazing a path for transforming Marxism to fit the Chinese context, creating the great, glorious, and right CPC, and establishing the New China, where the people are the country’s masters. Xi stated that Mao left behind irreversible historical legacies for the Chinese people and country that will live on in history. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded to a media conference when asked about her thoughts on Mao’s birth anniversary, saying, “Comrade Mao Zedong was at the core of the first generation of CPC central collective leadership and a great man deeply loved and respected by the whole world.” (With agency inputs)