BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s ruling Communist Party must keep pace with changing circumstances while safeguarding the advances it has made, President Xi Jinping ‌said on Wednesday during celebrations for its 105th founding anniversary.
_x000D_
Xi did not identify specific opportunities or risks, but analysts say slower economic growth and demographic decline pose key challenges for the world’s second largest economy.
_x000D_
In a 40-minute speech at Beijing’s Great ​Hall of the People, China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong urged party cadres to ​actively recognise, and adapt to, change, while promoting the party’s work.
_x000D_
“China’s development is currently â in a period where strategic opportunities, and risks and challenges, coexist,” said Xi, who called for the party to better coordinate efforts to tackle domestic and international issues.
_x000D_
Faced with external challenges from Western-led curbs on technology to turbulent trade ties with the United States and tension over Taiwan, party leaders consider it a critical task to strengthen their grasp on all aspects of Chinese society.
_x000D_
NUMBERS AT 100 MILLION SINCE 1921 FOUNDING
_x000D_
Founded by just dozens of Chinese revolutionaries in 1921, the party now claims more than 100 million members, or 7.2% of China’s population.
_x000D_
Its ambition today is to transform itself into the world’s “most powerful political party”, from the world’s “largest political party,” the official Xinhua news agency said in an editorial this week.
_x000D_
Xi asked members to ‌stamp â out aspects harmful to the party’s advancement and “purity”, as well as “all viruses that erode the party’s healthy body”.
_x000D_
Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has worked to reassert the party’s unquestioned authority at home, demand loyalty and unflinching discipline among its ranks, and expand China’s global influence.
_x000D_
He has launched one of China’s most sweeping graft crackdowns since Mao’s day, investigating millions of officials â at all levels, purging hundreds, along with top generals, in the years-long campaign.
_x000D_
POLITICAL REEDUCATION COURSE FOR SENIOR OFFICERS
_x000D_
After a corruption purge of nearly all top military ranks, Xi sent senior officers on a 10-week political reeducation course in April, urging them to be loyal â to the party’s belief, its organisation and cause.
_x000D_
On Wednesday Xi also talked about advancing China’s ambition to achieve “reunification” with Taiwan, calling for thorough implementation of the party’s strategy on “resolving the Taiwan issue”.
_x000D_
Beijing claims the democratically governed island â as its own territory, a contention Taipei rejects.
_x000D_
China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and its military operates daily around the island, which mounted combat-readiness drills last week in response.