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China celebrates President Xi in massive exhibition

Exhibits hammer home message of party’s triumph in every aspect of Chinese life



A portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping is displayed near the words that means "I will put aside my own well-being for the good of my People" at the Museum of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022.
Image Credit: AP

Beijing: Intercontinental missiles, disinfection robots and a piece of the Moon - China’s Communist Party on Wednesday flaunted the fruits of its decade under President Xi Jinping ahead of a key meeting expected to extend his rule.

Thousands of people thronged an exhibition in Beijing celebrating Xi’s “New Era” just days before a Party Congress at which the country’s political elite are expected to usher Xi into an unprecedented third term in power.

Visitors snapped selfies beside the enormous Dongfeng-41 nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile outside the entrance to the attraction, housed in a palatial 1950s hall designed by Soviet architects.

Omnipresent portraits of Xi showed the leader handing out awards, greeting a baby and surrounded by beaming well-wishers dressed in traditional clothing.

“Xi Jinping’s thoughts guide our country’s economic construction towards heroic achievements,” one caption read.

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Exhibits hammered home the message of the party’s triumph in every aspect of Chinese life, from dried mushrooms in an agricultural display to a lunar sample and lab-grown diamonds showcasing the country’s technical prowess.

People hold a Chinese national flag at the Beijing Exhibition Center, where an exhibition entitled "Forging Ahead in the New Era" showing the country's achievements during China's President Xi Jinping's past two terms is currently ongoing, ahead of the 20th Communist Party Congress meeting in Beijing on October 12, 2022.
Image Credit: AFP

“It’s so grand,” Wen, a government employee visiting the exhibition with her colleagues, told AFP during a government-organised media tour. “I feel proud of myself as a Chinese.”

Propaganda push

The exhibition is part of a propaganda push enveloping the capital ahead of the opening of the Congress on Sunday.

There are photos of vast cotton fields and farmers grinning over a bountiful apple harvest in Xinjiang, a scale model showing Hong Kong’s integration with neighbouring mainland cities and copies of Xi’s books in Uyghur and Mongolian.

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People look at a Type 15 tank on display at the Beijing Exhibition Center, where an exhibition entitled "Forging Ahead in the New Era" showing the country's achievements during China's President Xi Jinping's past two terms is currently ongoing, ahead of the 20th Communist Party Congress meeting in Beijing on October 12, 2022.
Image Credit: AFP

Realistic wax figures dressed in hazmat suits, vials of homegrown vaccines and a disinfectant-spraying robot highlighted the party’s pride in its zero-Covid policy, which Xi has claimed as a landmark victory despite its impact on economic growth.

Around Beijing, billboards and banners stretched across pedestrian bridges urge ideological loyalty to Xi.

Office buildings and shopping malls have set up elaborate floral displays marking the Congress.

Zhang Lingrui, a master’s student, said the displays at the exhibition had impressed her, telling AFP: “I feel the superiority of the current socialist system.”

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