Addressing a ceremony at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, President Xi Jinping described China’s transformation over recent decades as a new pathway for developing countries to modernise. He stated that the Communist Party of China (CPC) has “created a new form of human civilisation” and offered “Chinese wisdom, Chinese solutions and Chinese strength” to address global challenges. The event, which included the awarding of the July 1 Medal to exemplary party members, was held one year before the next party congress that will select a new leadership for a five-year term.

Viewed from Beijing, the speech projected confidence in the party’s domestic standing and international influence. Xi called the CPC the world’s largest ruling party with “significant global influence” and “genuine support of the people”. He urged members to safeguard the party’s “purity” and to eliminate “all viruses that erode the party’s healthy body”, reinforcing a years-long anti-corruption campaign that has removed senior generals and two defence ministers. On the military, Xi pledged to accelerate modernisation to “world-class standards” while maintaining party control over the armed forces.

Analysts in Western capitals note that the address comes as China faces a period of “strategic opportunities, and risks and challenges, coexist”, in Xi’s own words. Slower economic growth, demographic decline, and technology curbs led by the United States are among the pressures. On Taiwan, Xi declared that resolving the island’s status and achieving “reunification” is a “historical task” for the party, vowing to combat “separatist forces” and “foreign interference” — a formulation that, according to Taipei and Washington, leaves open the possibility of using force. Separately, the World Bank confirmed it will gradually end lending to China by 2031, a move that reflects the country’s graduation from development assistance and follows years of declining loan volumes.

The speech did not identify specific new policies, but party officials and state media framed it as a signal of continuity ahead of the 2027 leadership congress. The CPC, which began with a few dozen members in 1921 and now claims over 100 million, is seeking to transform itself from the world’s “largest political party” into the “most powerful”, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The next concrete step on the political calendar is the party congress, where the composition of the top leadership body is expected to be decided.