Matt Schiavenza From the Dragon to the Apple- A Sinophile in New York

Happy Birthday, Communist Party!

Both Xinhua and People's Daily lead with encomiums to the Chinese Communist Party, founded on this date in 1921. Here's a snippet of Xinhua's fulsome editorial:

八十七年峥嵘岁月，八十七载光辉历程。今天，我们党已成长为拥有7300多万党员、在13亿人口的大国长期执政的大党。八十七年的风雨砥砺，我们党更加坚强伟大，党的肌体生机勃发；八十七年的风险考验，我们党更加成熟自信，党的事业更加辉煌。

(in translation)

It has been 87 memorable years, suffused with a brilliant course. Today, our party has grown to include more than 73 million members, a great party governing over a great nation with a population of 1.3 billion. In the 87 years of trials and tribulations, our party has become ever more strong and great, an organism thriving with a new lease on life. In 87 years of hazardous risk, our party has become ever more mature and confident, its cause ever more glorious.

It's easy to poke fun at the Pravda-like nature of the Chinese media, but the resilience of the CCP is surely impressive. How "Communist" it truly is remains open to doubt. If the modern Communist Party were given a name more in line with its governing style, it'd be a Nationalist Party dictatorship attempting to juggle a market economy with a repressive political system. Will the Chinese Communist Party be around for another eighty-seven years? We'll see.