Chinese Communist Party honours ‘ordinary heroes’ with centenary medal
- Xi Jinping presents July 1 awards and urges party members to keep their spirits high while facing challenges ahead
- None of the 29 recipients were drawn from senior ranks but were chosen to represent achievements at frontline of policy areas
Xi, who is also party chief, called on his fellow members to keep their spirits high while facing the challenges ahead. “The greater the cause, the greater the challenges are,” he said after giving out the July 1 medals in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
“All party members need to keep the spirit of daring to make sun and moon shine in new skies,” he said, quoting a poem by Mao Zedong.
All recipients of the medals were party members at the frontline of key policy areas, although no senior leaders, five-star generals or prominent business heads were included. “The July 1 Medal recipients come from the people and are rooted in the people,” said Xi, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Xi described the recipients as “ordinary heroes” and said their contributions were achievable and their spirits reachable by all.
Among the recipients were Ma Maojie, a civil war veteran, Wang Shumao, a maritime militiaman celebrated for defending China’s territory in the South China Sea, and Chen Hongjun, a soldier who died last June in the border clash with India, as well as a few Korean war veterans.
Representatives from ethnic minority groups were also honoured, including a Uygur village chief who was praised for fighting separatism, and a woman Tibetan cadre credited for “leading the people to follow the party”.
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The only diplomat among the recipients was Liu Guijin, who was praised for spending his nearly 40-year career building ties with African countries. Qu Duyi, a former Moscow correspondent with Xinhua, was the only journalist on the list. She will turn 100 in November.
Zhang Guimei, who set up a senior high school offering free education to girls from impoverished families, also received an award, along with Lu Yuanjiu, who played an important role in China’s nuclear and satellite programmes.
The July 1 Medal, established by the CPC Central Committee in 2017, is the party’s highest honour and is presented every five years to individuals who have made contributions to the party and the development of the country.
Xi also said at the ceremony that the party “has written a splendid chapter in the history of the Chinese nation’s development” and called on the party, with more than 90 million members, to advance toward converting the country into a modern society and realise the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation when the People’s Republic turns 100.
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The awards ceremony was a curtain-raiser to the main celebrations on Thursday, when a larger gathering will take place in Beijing. Xi and other party leaders are expected to rally further domestic support as the country tackles external strategic headwinds which have not been seen in decades.
Han Wenxiu, deputy director of the central finance office, said on Monday that China’s economy would realise higher growth this year and lead the world in the post-pandemic recovery. China’s GDP rose 2.3 per cent in 2020, the only major country to see positive growth last year.
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Also on Monday, Xi and other party leaders joined around 20,000 people at the National Stadium – popularly known as the Bird’s Nest – for an artistic performance called The Great Journey, one day earlier than previously scheduled.
