Rowan Callick, Australian Newspaper journalist & double Walkley Award winner, about his article ‘Communist China at 70: Life of the party state’.

Mr Callick writes ‘Next Tuesday, the People’s Republic of China will celebrate its achievements and its potential on its 70th birthday, with an enormous show of military force parading along Chang’an (Perpetual Peace) Avenue into Tiananmen Square, where Mao Zedong had led the celebrations of victory against the Nationalists in 1949.’

‘Most people in China are looking forward to next week as one of the country’s two Golden Week holidays, with the Spring Festival that follows Lunar New Year.’

‘But Xi, the party’s general secretary — his core role — will be seeking to set a more serious tone and to counter, with his long-term socialist vision, growing concerns about the slowing of the economy, the pervasive surveillance and censorship, and the increasingly existential contest with the US.’

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