China's Communist Party Marks 77 Years in Power With Tiananmen Flag Ceremony, South China Sea Claims

Since Xi Jinping's September 30 banquet address calling China's rise "unstoppable," Beijing has carried that message into a week of National Day ceremonies, including a dawn flag-raising at Tiananmen Square that drew more than 100,000 people on Thursday, October 1.

The celebrations mark the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. According to Xinhua, carried by People's Daily, CCTV, CGTN and China Daily, Xi told roughly 800 Party officials, foreign envoys and dignitaries at the Great Hall of the People that "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is unstoppable" and that "success will ultimately belong to the great CPC, the great Chinese people and the great People's Republic of China."

Premier Li Qiang presided over the reception, which was also attended by Politburo Standing Committee members Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Li Xi and Han Zheng, according to Xinhua and China's foreign ministry. Xi credited the Party with delivering what he called "twin miracles" of rapid economic growth and long-term social stability over 77 years, and said China has already met its first "centenary goal" of building a "moderately prosperous society."

The Holiday Beyond the Banquet

Breitbart's coverage adds detail the state outlets did not emphasize. Beyond the Tiananmen flag ceremony, the government organized National Day observances in Tibet and in Xinjiang, which Breitbart refers to by its historical name, East Turkistan. Breitbart also reported that China raised its flag over disputed territory in the South China Sea, territory contested by the Philippines, Vietnam and other regional claimants, and described that move as illicit. None of the Chinese state outlets in this coverage addressed the South China Sea flag-raising or the ceremonies in Tibet and Xinjiang, focusing instead on Xi's economic and governance remarks.

Breitbart also tied the holiday to the 90th anniversary of the end of Mao Zedong's Long March, a 6,000-mile retreat in 1934 and 1935 in which, Breitbart reported, roughly 100,000 people set out and only about 4,000 survived, Mao among them. Historians have long attributed tens of millions of deaths to Mao-era policies that followed, including the Great Leap Forward of 1958 to 1962, which Breitbart put at an estimated 45 million deaths, and the one-child policy that Chinese authorities themselves have said prevented roughly 400 million births. State media in this set of sources did not reference Mao's record at all, framing the anniversary purely around Xi's "modernization" rhetoric.

What Xi Did Not Detail

Xi used the banquet to tout the start of China's 15th Five-Year Plan, covering 2026 through 2030, saying the country must "get off to a good start" and sustain what he called resilient, innovation-driven growth. But as reported in prior coverage of his remarks ahead of National Day, that growth has slowed to 4.3%. Xi's banquet speech, as relayed by Xinhua and KBC, offered no new policy specifics, numeric targets, or details on how Beijing intends to arrest the slowdown.

Xi also reaffirmed Beijing's "one country, two systems" framework for Hong Kong and Macao, saying the central government would support both regions "integrating more fully into the country's overall development," according to People's Daily, CCTV and China Daily. He did not address Taiwan in the portions of the speech carried by these outlets.

The Fair Reading on Both Sides

Party officials and Xi himself argue the stability and growth of the past 77 years, even with this year's slowdown, represent a genuine governing achievement, lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty since 1949. That is the Party's own framing, repeated across Xinhua, CGTN, China Daily and the foreign ministry's own statement, and it reflects a real, measurable economic transformation since Mao's death in 1976.

The counter-argument, reflected in Breitbart's reporting, is that the same Party now celebrating "unstoppable" rejuvenation was built on a record of mass death under Mao, and continues to govern Tibet and Xinjiang as what Breitbart calls "occupied regions" while asserting territorial claims in the South China Sea that neighboring countries dispute. Both are documented historical and geopolitical facts, not matters of interpretation, even if state media chooses not to mention them during a national holiday.

The 15th Five-Year Plan specifics have not yet been laid out in any of the speeches covered by state media. Xi's banquet remarks set a tone of confidence but no targets, including growth goals and plans to address the slowdown already evident in 2026.