Today we mark the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
In less than three generations, under the leadership of the Party, our nation has risen from a war-torn country to a global superpower.
We began with nothing. By 1949, China had been at war, on and off, for over a century. The 1911 Revolution overthrew feudalism and established our first republic, but it brought us neither prosperity nor dignity. Yet it was the last snowflake that set off the avalanche; the people's revolution.
Western historicism sees history in segmented eras; it likes to pinpoint Copernican turning points and paradigm shifts. We Chinese, however, view history as more continuous. That is why our communist revolution did not begin in 1949, or 1921, or 1911: its roots reach back long before Marx. For us, ideology is a tool for the people's liberation and national awakening. Our goal has always been people-centered, not blind faith in doctrine.
We still view previous revolutions, regardless of ideological leaning, as part of our struggle, the fight for a better life for our people. They are not foreign chapters in someone else's story; they are chapters in our own. Every uprising, every reform, every sacrifice that sought to lift our people and advance the awakening of our nation belongs to that same long march. We honor them not because they were perfect, but because they were ours steps, however uneven, toward the same horizon.
That is the continuity we carry, not a chain of isolated revolutions, but one unbroken struggle, generation after generation, to build a China worthy of its people.