‘The CPC and the Chinese people are a whole, like flesh and blood, like water and fish’
The 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China was celebrated in Kazan with an exhibition
Tatarstan joined the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China. An exhibition the PRC’s Consulate General brought to Kazan will be in the Lenin House Museum for two weeks. Realnoe Vremya’s correspondent attended the solemn opening of the exposition.
Why one wants to move to China
China celebrated the birthday of the ruling party on a large scale (over 91 million members with 93% of the 1,4-billion population). Several events were dedicated to this milestone: a book on the party’s history was printed, a documentary series was made, 100 red tourist routes were presented, state awards were awarded, memorable coins were issued, a new museum of the Communist Party opened.
On 28 June, China’s leader Xi Jinping talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin via teleconference. The Russian leader noted, “Once the Soviet Union actively supported Chinese communists in their revolutionary fight, provided weighty help in the creation of the party and the state during the formation of new China.”
We have to say that Moscow has a museum devoted to the 6th session of the CPC — the only session that took place in Russia, not in China. A meeting with 70,000 people took place at central Tiananmen Square in Beijing on 1 July morning.
Meanwhile, a gazebo in the Lenin House Museum was temporarily transformed into some 1 May pulpit with a small conference hall. By the way, a seat for Taliya Minullina wasn’t found immediately. One of the workers of the consulate claimed confusedly: “We didn’t expect you”. In reply, the head of the Tatarstan Investment Development Agency said that she had been invited, then she found an empty chair in the first rows.
The event began with the two countries’ anthems, moreover, the words about Lenin, the party and the popular power in ours would be very topical.
About 30 posters were placed on the perimeter of the site. Each of them included around 10 photos explaining how Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng appeared with the help of the Communist International in 1921 with Secretary General Chen Duxiu, the first illegal session and so on in detail...
Without any tragedies in the same Tiananmen Square and the Uyghurs’ situation in the PRC, of course. During the Soviet era, this was named propaganda, now it is brand promotion. China combines Soviet and Western and takes the necessary. Black-and-white photos are gradually replaced with coloured images, and the story turns into the enumeration of the PRC’s accomplishments, which, without doubt, are many. Every poster has a QR code that seems to refer to a page to listen to information. But the first link refers to a website where we are told about Coco Chanel in English.
A story about “semi-colonial and semi-feudal society”
In this silver-tongued speech of the PRC’s Consul General in Kazan, Wu Yingqin had a lot of comparisons with the USA. For instance, he says that a building was built in China for 43 hours. And the country beat the pandemic, unlike the USA. “The quality of China’s management excelled the US management,” he concluded and then remembered Putin’s words at Petersburg Economic Forum: “And the United States is following the path of the Soviet Union with a confident gait, a confident pace, a firm step.”
Though Mr Yingqin warned that his speech would be “long enough”, everybody appreciated the effective propagandist speech after which one immediately wants to move to China.
First, the consul general talked about Lenin and noted that “the volleys of Russia’s October Revolution brought Marxism and Leninism to China.” And China was then “a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society,” a poor state. Then there was a battle between capitalism and feudalism. However, Chinese revolutionists saw hopes in the events in Russia and with the help of their foreign friends created a party and then established a socialist system.
“The country was very poor and lagging then, the average life expectancy was 35 years. The industry was falling behind. Even nails and matches had to be imported. The annual steel volume was just several thousands of tonnes,” the consul outlined the gloomy picture.
What happened next? With the help of the USSR, 156 enterprises were built, then reforms and growth began. Now China’s share of the global economy is 17%. It is the largest economic industrial, gold currency country, a trade partner in 130 countries and regions. Last year, its GDP was $15 trillion.
“The CPC and the Chinese people are a whole, like flesh and blood, like water and fish,” Mr Yingqin explained.
The consul general talked about himself too. He was born to a poor family but managed to get an education, learnt the toughest Russian language (“Chinese is the second toughest language”). While his children have everything.
Five Chinese brothers of Kazan
The consul general’s speech impressed two people especially. Vice Mayor of Kazan Yevgenia Lodvigova enumerated five sister cities in China Kazan had cooperated in the last years. It is Shenzhen, the capital worked with it when hosting the Universiade. Kazan learnt how to build zoos in Chengdu. Guangzhou is a great example of industrialisation (Kazan participated in a fight for the international Guangzhou award for urban innovations). Kazan started to talk with Xian authorities during the preparation for a conference of the League of Historical Cities.
“And I have forgotten another city... Hangzhou, of course,” Lodvigova said without the help of the audience and added that local traffic evaluation methods and Big Data technologies amazed her.
In a word, China is close. It is obviously closer than Khabarovsk or Vladivostok. This is why the plans for hosting Hunan Province Days voiced by Tatarstan Vice Minister of Culture Damir Notfullin.
Though United Russia in Russia has the same status as the CPC, Khafiz Mirgalimov closed the event. By the way, the head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in the State Council admitted he had never been to China.
“I am sitting and looking at this amazing event, how it is organised, how it is designed, how it is done, how meaningful the report has been. It is a prototype of the Communist Party of the former Soviet Union,” said the first secretary.
“They, communists of China, considered the tragedies, dramas the Soviet people had experienced. And the main conclusion of the CPC is that they learnt from their own mistakes, summarised them and moved forward, from capitalism to socialism.”
It seems that we just needed to go out and see the Kuybyshev Hydropower Plant had just been launched, Gagarin had gone into space, Gentlemen of Luck had been released. But I needed just look at my Chinese phone, put a Chinese hat on and head towards a laptop in Chinese shoes to write an article, also about Made in China.
