(TibetanReview.net, Jun01’21) – China has included a Tibetan among 29 candidates, including eight from ethnic minority groups, to be honoured with medals on Jul 1 when the Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding, according to the official globaltimes.cn Jun 1.
The youngest candidate still alive is said to be a 60-year-old female shepherd from Tibet Autonomous Region who has made contributions to China’s border safety through a decades-long grazing patrol.
Another candidate was reported to be 1987-born Chen Hongjun, “a border defense hero who held his post in the plateau for 10 years and died in safeguarding China’s territorial integrity against Indian provocation in the Galwan Valley in June 2020.”
A pioneer of China’s plateau medicine who has ensured the workers’ safety during the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet railway is also on the list.
The list was stated to include “war heroes, maritime militia, scientists, community workers, artists, diplomats, and pioneers in national unity, educators and police.”
They were described as Party members whose names may be not that well known but who had “made outstanding contributions and created valuable spiritual wealth, as the CPC marks the 100th anniversary of its founding.”
The Jul 1 Medals were reported to be meant to honour the importance of the cohesion of the Party and the people, the inheritance of the precious spirit and unity. “The list of grass-root candidates is also regarded as a response to some Western politicians who have attempted to split Chinese people from CPC,” the report noted.
As regards the purpose of honouring ordinary party members who may not be that well known, Su Wei, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee, has said, “They [Some Western politicians] do not understand that the CPC is a party of the masses, while the Western party belongs to the limited elite.”
China has over 91 million Party members, but most of them are ordinary people in various fields who play a vanguard and exemplary role, Su has said. “They are not Western political bureaucrats, but members of the working people. This is why the CPC is so close to the Chinese people.”
Su has further said, “Conferring Jul 1 Medals sends a strong signal to those anti-China forces that the Chinese PLA is capable of defeating invasions of all enemies and will follow CPC’s leadership to resolutely safeguard sovereignty and China’s development interests. What the anti-China forces try to incite is doomed to fail.”
