China's Xi urges ruling Communist Party to be adaptable, safeguard advances

Analysts say slower economic growth, demographic decline pose key challenges for world's second-largest economy

China's ruling Communist Party must keep pace with changing circumstances while safeguarding the advances it has made, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday during celebrations for its 105th founding anniversary.

Xi did not identify specific opportunities or risks, but analysts say slower economic growth and demographic decline pose key challenges for the world's second-largest economy. In a 40-minute speech at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong urged party cadres to actively recognise and adapt to, change, while promoting the party's work.

"China's development is currently in a period where strategic opportunities, risks and challenges coexist," said Xi, who called for the party to better coordinate efforts to tackle domestic and international issues.

Faced with external challenges from Western-led curbs on technology to turbulent trade ties with the United States and tension over Taiwan, party leaders consider it a critical task to strengthen their grasp on all aspects of Chinese society.

Numbers at 100 million since 1921 founding

Founded by just dozens of Chinese revolutionaries in 1921, the party now claims more than 100 million members, or 7.2% of China's population. Its ambition today is to transform itself into the world's "most powerful political party", from the world's "largest political party," the official Xinhua news agency said in an editorial this week.

Xi asked members to stamp out aspects harmful to the party's advancement and "purity", as well as "all viruses that erode the party's healthy body".

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Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has worked to reassert the party's unquestioned authority at home, demand loyalty and unflinching discipline among its ranks, and expand China's global influence.

He has launched one of China's most sweeping graft crackdowns since Mao's day, investigating millions of officials at all levels, purging hundreds, along with top generals, in the years-long campaign.

Political re-education course for senior officers

After a corruption purge of nearly all top military ranks, Xi sent senior officers on a 10-week political reeducation course in April, urging them to be loyal to the party's belief, its organisation and cause.

On Wednesday, Xi also talked about advancing China's ambition to achieve "reunification" with Taiwan, calling for thorough implementation of the party's strategy on "resolving the Taiwan issue". Beijing claims the democratically governed island as its own territory, a contention Taipei rejects.

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Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, which determines policy on China, said that Xi was "basically repeating old talking points".

The government continues to call on China to resolve differences through dialogue with the democratically elected and legitimate government without setting preconditions, it said in a statement responding to his speech.

China has never renounced the ​use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and its military operates daily ⁠around the island, which mounted combat-readiness drills last week in response.