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BEIJING: A confident-sounding Communist Party of China spoke of a brighter future by remembering the victims in a ceremony on Sunday (December 13) on the 83rd anniversary of the Nanjing massacre.
Over six weeks, Japanese troops raped and killed tens of thousands, and by some estimates hundreds of thousands, of people after conquering Nanjing, then China’s capital, on December 13, 1937.
Chen Xi, a senior party official, called the massacre “an inhuman act in human history.”
Addressing a large and precisely aligned crowd in the eastern city, he said they had gathered “to remember the day of the atrocity, honor the peace and open a new chapter in our future.”
His forward-looking comments reflected how much the world has changed since the days when then-imperial Japan occupied the eastern half of the country, only ending with Japan’s defeat at the end of WWII.
Chen said that China, which has displaced Japan as the world’s second-largest economy, is closer than ever to achieving the dream of national rejuvenation, a slogan of the Communist Party.
He used the anniversary to counter those who see China’s rise as a threat and said the party is committed to international cooperation and peaceful development.
Chen also noted that China is the first country to control COVID-19 and restore economic growth, which, he said, demonstrates the strength of the Communist Party’s leadership. China is an authoritarian one-party state.
