From Standing Up to National Rejuvenation: 77-Year Transformation of New China

The journey of New China was inaugurated on October 1, 1949, when Chairman Mao Zedong solemnly proclaimed the birth of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) at Tian’anmen Square, declaring to the world that “The Chinese people, comprising one quarter of humanity, have now stood up”.

Over the past 77 years, successive generations of Chinese leadership have inherited that historic mission and pursued it through changing circumstances, policies and stages of development. But this historic proclamation cannot be understood without looking backwards.

From the First Opium War in 1840 to the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1912, China endured foreign intervention, unequal treaties, territorial concessions, internal rebellion and political fragmentation.

Japanese aggression brought further devastation. In Chinese historical consciousness, these experiences became associated with the “century of humiliation”. The Long March of 1934–35 later became a symbol of the revolutionary struggle’s endurance and sacrifice.

By 1949, the founding of New China therefore carried immense historical weight. Mao described the preceding century as one of oppression and exploitation by foreign imperialism and domestic reactionary governments, linking the new republic to generations of earlier struggle.

“Our forefathers enjoined us to carry out their unfulfilled will,” he said in September 1949. “And we have acted accordingly.” Yet Mao also made clear that political victory was only the beginning: the new China still had to build its path for national rejuvenation.

Shortly after the birth of New China, it established an independent policy of peace to tie diplomatic relations with all countries, guided by the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, diametrically opposed to power politics. Premier Zhou Enlai in late 1953 put forward it.

These norms of international relations demonstrated that the founding of New China was concerned not only with rebuilding the country internally, but also with determining how a newly sovereign China would relate to other nations.

Then came Deng Xiaoping, and the meaning of revolutionary inheritance began to change. If Mao’s generation had asked how China could stand up, Deng’s generation confronted how China could develop.

After the upheavals of the preceding period, Deng restored emphasis on “seeking truth from facts” and placed socialist modernisation at the centre of national work.

In his 1984 speech marking the 35th anniversary of the PRC, he said that since 1949 “the Chinese people have stood on their feet” and argued that the country’s highest priority was socialist modernisation. Deng led the country into the era of reform, opening up, and socialist modernisation.

Deng’s thinking contained another important feature: the willingness to examine experience and correct policies. In 1987, discussing problems arising from economic development, he said the country had to “review our experience regularly” and recognise where things had gone wrong.

He also argued that negative effects produced by development had to be eliminated if development was to proceed soundly.

As China transitioned into the 21st century, the CPC central collective leadership with Jiang Zemin at its core established the goal of building a socialist market economy and oversaw China’s landmark accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001.

Formulating the Theory of Three Represents, Jiang Zemin emphasised that the Party must always represent the development trends of advanced productive forces, the orientation of advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority.

The objective was no longer merely reconstruction or survival of China. National development itself had become part of the larger historical project of rejuvenation.

Following this, Hu Jintao introduced the Scientific Outlook on Development, embedding a people-centered strategy into comprehensive, balanced, and sustainable growth.

Hu highlighted that “To put people on top of our priority list is to take the comprehensive development of man as our objective, uphold the fundamental interests of the people… and ensure that they reap the benefits of development,” steering China through the 2008 global financial crisis, and advancing an all-round moderately prosperous society.

Following the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, “socialism with Chinese characteristics” entered a New Era under President Xi Jinping, setting China on a course toward national rejuvenation.

Defining the core mandate of the Party, Xi while delivering a report to the 19th National Congress in 2017 declared: “Never forget why you started, and you can accomplish your mission. The original aspiration and mission of Chinese Communists is to seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation”.

Through targeted poverty alleviation campaigns, China brought about a historic victory by lifting nearly 100 million rural residents and all 832 impoverished counties out of absolute poverty by the end of 2020, and completing the First Centenary Goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

Internationally, President Xi Jinping has carried forward and upgraded the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence through the Vision of Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind.

Supported by the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative, China advocates what it describes as an equal and orderly multipolar world and universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalisation
Xi Jinping has carried historical threads into a new stage.

At the 70th anniversary in 2019, he explicitly returned to Mao’s words, saying that the founding of the PRC had meant that “the Chinese people had stood up”.

At the 75th anniversary in 2024, Xi described the task of the new era in still broader terms: building a stronger country and advancing national rejuvenation through Chinese modernisation.

The official formulation placed reform, opening up, high-quality development and Party self-governance alongside the continuing emphasis on the people.

As New China marks 77 years of accomplishments, its journey demonstrates that the core of its success lies in upholding Party leadership, adhering to a people-centered philosophy, and pursuing peaceful development.

China that emerged from poverty and foreign domination pursued national development through a long-term political goal, adapting its economic and social strategies with Chinese characteristics while retaining a strong conception of national sovereignty and state capacity.

Looking toward the Second Centenary Goal of building a great modern socialist country in all respects by the middle of the 21st century, China continues its march with unshakeable resolve.

The China of 1949 was concerned with survival, sovereignty and reconstruction. The China of the reform era was concerned increasingly with development and integration.

The China of the present era speaks of technological advancement, high-quality development, common prosperity, national rejuvenation and Chinese modernization to fulfill Chinese dream.

The future will test how effectively those ambitions can be translated into sustained improvements in people’s lives while navigating economic, demographic, technological, environmental and geopolitical pressures.

(The Writer is the Diplomatic Correspondent of the New Nation)