AFP July 01, 2011 12:51PM
Chinese national flag guards in front of the communist party emblem at Tiananmen Square, amid 90th anniversary celebrations of China's ruling party. Source: Getty Images
Chinese artist paints Mao to life
Ge Xiaoguang paints the huge portrait of China's former Chairman Mao Zedong that hangs over Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
Reuters1 July 2011
CHINA today marks the 90th birthday of its ruling Communist Party, which first emerged as a tiny grouping of intellectuals and now presides over the world's second-largest economy.
The country's top leaders are due to attend a glitzy ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing amid a nationwide propaganda blitz, but experts warn the future is less certain for the one-party regime.
China, which likes to mark official anniversaries with pomp, has already released a star-studded patriotic film, launched a flagship high-speed rail link, and broadcast multiple revolutionary-style shows on television.
The nation's first aircraft carrier could also go on sea trials today, according to a Hong Kong Commercial Daily report that cited unnamed military sources - a move that would garner worldwide attention on the anniversary.
The CCP was established in July 1921 in Shanghai as the brainchild of a dozen intellectuals. It took power in China in 1949 after defeating the rival Nationalists in a long and bloody civil war.
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The country was then plunged into nearly 30 years of chaos due to policies enacted by revolutionary leader Mao Zedong that triggered political purges, famine and social upheavals in which millions died.
After Mao's death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping took over and launched a period of reforms that transformed China into the economic powerhouse it is today.
But the party's small group of elite leaders continues to exercise an iron grip on the country's political system, controlling the media and managing the world's largest military.
Analysts say a lack of social and political reform have fostered problems such as corruption, government abuses, illegal land seizures, a growing rich-poor divide and pollution - issues that threaten the party's future.
But Chinese authorities are not letting these problems cloud anniversary celebrations - newspapers are full of glowing editorials about the CCP, and upbeat slogans and huge flower arrangements dot cities.
An epic film recounting the Communist Party's origins and featuring many of China's biggest stars - "Beginning of the Great Revival" - is expected to smash box-office records.
And on the eve of the anniversary, Premier Wen Jiabao launched a new $33 billion high-speed train line between Beijing and Shanghai - an event that was widely covered in the media.
AFP
China's ruling Communist Party marks 90th year | The Australian
