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Xi Stresses Loyalty as Chinese Communist Party Prepares for 100th Anniversary

A giant screen broadcasts live footage of Chinese President Xi during the July 1 Medal awarding ceremony for outstanding Party members at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China June 29, 2021. (Reuters)
A giant screen broadcasts live footage of Chinese President Xi during the July 1 Medal awarding ceremony for outstanding Party members at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China June 29, 2021. (Reuters)
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Xi Stresses Loyalty as Chinese Communist Party Prepares for 100th Anniversary

A giant screen broadcasts live footage of Chinese President Xi during the July 1 Medal awarding ceremony for outstanding Party members at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China June 29, 2021. (Reuters)
A giant screen broadcasts live footage of Chinese President Xi during the July 1 Medal awarding ceremony for outstanding Party members at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China June 29, 2021. (Reuters)

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday urged Chinese Communist Party members to remain loyal and continue to serve the people as he awarded a new medal of honor to 29 members as part of the ruling party's 100th anniversary celebrations this week.

The medal award ceremony took place in Beijing's Great Hall of the People with much fanfare and was broadcast live on national television, as the party prepares to mark its 100th birthday on Thursday.

The "July 1 medal", announced in 2017 and given out for the first time on Tuesday, is part of Xi's efforts to shore up the image of one of the world's most powerful political parties.

He urged all members to "firmly keep the loyalty and love for the party and the people close to one's heart, turn that into action, dedicate everything, even your precious life, to the party and the people".

Honored for "outstanding contributions" to the party, the medal recipients included soldiers, community workers and professionals in the arts and science.

The Chinese Communist Party had 91.9 million members in 2019, or 6.6% of China's population, and has ruled the country since 1949.

As part of the anniversary-week celebrations, the party also staged a gala performance on Monday night in the National Stadium, or "Bird's Nest" as it is commonly called.

Party leaders and foreign diplomats watched the extravaganza of song, dance and theater which credited the party with guiding China's rise into a great power over the past century.

Darker parts in the party's history, including a famine in the late 1950s, the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, were omitted from the show.

The show culminated with the audience singing the song "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China," and five minutes of fireworks.

Many Chinese cheered the celebration by posting online well-wishes for the country and party on social media.

Some comments were less cheery.

"Only when housing price falls, can the people start to feel happiness," read one comment, which received 39 "likes".

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US Agency Focused on Foreign Disinformation Shuts Down

The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP
The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP
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US Agency Focused on Foreign Disinformation Shuts Down

The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP
The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP

A leading US government agency that tracks foreign disinformation has terminated its operations, the State Department said Tuesday, after Congress failed to extend its funding following years of Republican criticism.
The Global Engagement Center, a State Department unit established in 2016, shuttered on Monday at a time when officials and experts tracking propaganda have been warning of the risk of disinformation campaigns from US adversaries such as Russia and China, AFP reported.
"The State Department has consulted with Congress regarding next steps," it said in a statement when asked what would happen to the GEC's staff and its ongoing projects following the shutdown.
The GEC had an annual budget of $61 million and a staff of around 120. Its closing leaves the State Department without a dedicated office for tracking and countering disinformation from US rivals for the first time in eight years.
A measure to extend funding for the center was stripped out of the final version of the bipartisan federal spending bill that passed through the US Congress last week.
The GEC has long faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who accused it of censoring and surveilling Americans.
It also came under fire from Elon Musk, who accused the GEC in 2023 of being the "worst offender in US government censorship [and] media manipulation" and called the agency a "threat to our democracy."
The GEC's leaders have pushed back on those views, calling their work crucial to combating foreign propaganda campaigns.
Musk had loudly objected to the original budget bill that would have kept GEC funding, though without singling out the center. The billionaire is an advisor to President-elect Donald Trump and has been tapped to run the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with reducing government spending.
In June, James Rubin, special envoy and coordinator for the GEC, announced the launch of a multinational group based in Warsaw to counter Russian disinformation on the war in neighboring Ukraine.
The State Department said the initiative, known as the Ukraine Communications Group, would bring together partner governments to coordinate messaging, promote accurate reporting of the war and expose Kremlin information manipulation.
In a report last year, the GEC warned that China was spending billions of dollars globally to spread disinformation and threatening to cause a "sharp contraction" in freedom of speech around the world.