On July 1, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), delivered a speech at a ceremony in Beijing celebrating the 105th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee attended the meeting. Xi Jinping urged the entire Party to adhere to a bottom-line mentality, mentioning the word "struggle" eight times throughout his speech. This speech has been interpreted not only as a commemoration of the CPC's 105th anniversary but also as highlighting risks, security, and intra-party mobilization.
At the meeting, Xi Jinping stated that 105 years after the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Chinese people and the Chinese nation had gained "the most reliable backbone," and China embarked on a "historical transformation that has brought about earth-shaking changes." He also said that the CPC's 105 years of struggle have changed the future and destiny of the Chinese people, opened up the path to national rejuvenation, promoted Chinese-style modernization, and provided a pathway for developing countries to achieve modernization. Xi Jinping said that the CPC has become "the world's largest ruling party with significant global influence," and is the core of leadership for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, fully worthy of being called a "great, glorious, and correct party."
Xi Jinping devoted a significant portion of the speech to reviewing the history of the Chinese Communist Party, emphasizing that "the Party leads the people in advancing Chinese-style modernization." He stated that the CCP "completed the industrialization process that took developed countries hundreds of years in just a few decades."
In an interview with this station, Wang Jiang (pseudonym), an independent scholar in China, said that the core of Xi Jinping's speech was still self-praise, and that he maintained his absolute personal power and the CCP's absolute leadership over China by emphasizing various risks.
He said, "Xi Jinping, as the General Secretary of almost the last large ruling Communist Party in the world, is praising himself and insisting on absolute personal power and the Party's absolute leadership over China through rhetoric emphasizing various risks. This shows that China's party-state system continues to strengthen, with no intention of sharing power with any emerging political forces or dispersing power within the party. As the last and largest Communist Party, the CCP manages the world's largest capitalist economy and is destroying the global capitalist economic order through brutal, primitive capitalist competition. This is a very special phenomenon; it is neither traditional socialism nor a normal market economy, but a capitalist competition machine controlled by party-state power."
Struggle becomes a key word throughout the text
In this speech of about four thousand words, Xi Jinping mentioned "struggle" eight times. In summarizing the so-called "excellent qualities" of the CCP, he said that the CCP "dares to struggle and is good at struggling, and always maintains confidence in victory"; at the end of the speech, he also asked the whole party to "dare to struggle and be good at struggling".
Wang Jiang stated that Xi Jinping's repeated emphasis on struggle in his speech demonstrates his continuation of the political logic of "continuous revolution" from the Mao era. He said, "By emphasizing continuous struggle, as a continuation and new version of the Mao era's continuous revolution, it strengthens the CCP's centralized power model, including his own highly centralized authority. This is very close to the Soviet Lenin-Stalinist system that founded the CCP 100 years ago; it is very fundamentalist and quite in line with the fundamentalist movements and authoritarian strongman politics trends in other countries in the 21st century."
Han Qing, a scholar who focuses on the CCP's political discourse, told this station that Xi Jinping's speech continued the historical narrative of the CCP's anniversary speeches, but it is noteworthy that the latter half of the speech increasingly shifted towards risks and struggles. He said, "This kind of speech is not simply a review of history, but rather a setting of the tone for the Party. Now the CCP is facing economic, social, diplomatic, and security issues, and it wants to tell Party cadres that the future is not about relaxing, but about continuing to fight."
The "1992 Consensus" was reiterated in the effort to build a world-class military.
On military issues, Xi Jinping said, "A strong country must have a strong military, and only a strong military can ensure national security." He called for upholding the Party's absolute leadership over the military, achieving the centenary goal of the People's Liberation Army on schedule, and accelerating the building of the military into a world-class force.
On the Taiwan issue, Xi Jinping reiterated adherence to the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, stating that it is necessary to "resolutely crack down on 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces, oppose external interference, and firmly advance the great cause of national reunification." Compared with his speech commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China in 2021 , this year's statements on Taiwan largely maintained the original framework. Back then, Xi Jinping said that the process of peaceful reunification of the motherland should be advanced, and that it was necessary to "resolutely crush any 'Taiwan independence' plot," adding that "no one should underestimate the Chinese people's strong determination, firm will, and powerful capability to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Mainland scholar Mr. Liu told reporters that Xi Jinping's statements on the Taiwan issue are basically the same fixed expressions used by the CCP in its discourse on Taiwan in recent years. He said, "The 105th anniversary speech lacked the strong warnings like 'No one should underestimate the Chinese people…' found in the 100th anniversary speech, but it added the current external context of 'opposing external interference.' What is truly noteworthy is not the novelty, but that it was placed within the overall framework of the CCP's 105th anniversary speech. Xi Jinping's speech emphasized the absolute central position of the 'Party' at the beginning, and stressed 'bottom-line thinking,' 'fighting spirit,' 'strengthening the military,' and the 'Taiwan issue' at the end, showing that the Taiwan issue is still incorporated into the CCP's national security and national rejuvenation narrative."
The scale is higher on the fifth and tenth anniversaries.
Commemorative events for the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) typically reach a higher level of importance on the fifth and tenth anniversaries. The 100th and 105th anniversaries are considered major political milestones, and the CPC Central Committee usually holds a celebratory rally in which Xi Jinping attends and delivers a formal speech. These ceremonies are sometimes accompanied by the awarding of the "July 1st Medal" and the commendation of outstanding Party members and advanced grassroots Party organizations nationwide. In contrast, for the 104th anniversary of the CPC's founding in 2025, Xi Jinping did not deliver a speech of the same caliber at the July 1st rally, but instead presided over a collective study session of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau on the eve of July 1st.
Xi Jinping mentioned the "Party" 79 times in his speech, including 16 times using the phrase "our Party." The word "people" appeared 46 times, "China" 44 times, "development" 33 times, "the times" 23 times, and "history" and "struggle" 20 times each. Based on word frequency, "Party, people, China, development, and struggle" remain the main keywords in this speech.
US-based current affairs commentator Liang Xian told reporters that in Xi Jinping's speech, "struggle" is a political mobilization term, frequently used in the Party's anti-corruption campaign, but also applicable to ideology, foreign relations, social governance, and the Taiwan issue: "Its scope is very broad; its true meaning is to require the entire system to maintain a state of combat readiness." In his view, Xi Jinping's inclusion of the Party, struggle, risk, military strengthening, and the Taiwan issue in the same speech indicates that the CCP will continue to prioritize security and control in its governance.
