Long March 90th Anniversary Rally Reasserts Party Orthodoxy and Global Leadership

The Communist Party of China held a commemorative conference this year to mark the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March by the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. Themed around the hardships and heroism of the Long March, the event featured a large-scale military parade, commemorative speeches, and video presentations, emphasizing the march as an indispensable "cornerstone" and "spiritual symbol" in the Party's history. During the proceedings, top leaders of the Party Central Committee repeatedly cited the history of the Long March, linking it to the nation's modernization process. The aim was to consolidate consensus on the Party's legitimacy and leadership both within and outside the Party through historical retrospection. Such large-scale commemorative events are not merely a review of the past but also a declaration of the future national development blueprint, particularly within the context of the Party's narratives of "peaceful rise" and "major power diplomacy," which have imbued the Long March with new political significance.

The Long March began in 1934, when the Red Army, under siege by the Kuomintang, was forced to march north. After a grueling journey spanning thousands of miles, the forces finally reached Yan'an in northern Shaanxi, laying the foundation for the Party's survival and future. The Long March was not only a military operation but also a political and ideological ordeal, providing the organizational and strategic basis for the subsequent "War of Resistance Against Japan" and the "Chinese Civil War." The historical community generally agrees that the spirit of "hard struggle" associated with the Long March has been deeply encoded by the Party's propaganda system, becoming a key component of its legitimacy and the image of its leaders. Meanwhile, the Long March has also been used to contrast the Kuomintang's role in the War of Resistance Against Japan, further strengthening the Communist Party's international image as the "true resister" of Japanese aggression.

Following the end of World War II, the Chinese Communist Party began positioning itself as a "primary builder of the post-war international order." Through a diplomatic tone of "peaceful rise" and economic initiatives such as the "Belt and Road," it has promoted China's dominant role in global governance. The Party's historical narrative links the Long March with the War of Resistance Against Japan and the Chinese Civil War, forming a linear storyline of "from revolution to state building" that underscores the Party's legitimacy and historical mission. However, this narrative contains contradictions in actual historical reality: the course of the Long March involved armed conflicts between the Red Army and the Kuomintang that were not simply a confrontation with "foreign aggressors," but rather a struggle for power among internal factions. This contradiction has been [the text cuts off here]