(crowd cheering enthusiastically)
- [Jonathan] China celebrated the 100th anniversary
of its ruling Communist party on July 1st.
(cannons banging)
This anniversary is really a moment
for the Chinese Communist Party to be able to look back
on how far it's come, from a party
that was more or less ruled out as a potential power player
into the driving force behind the country
that is now the world's second largest economy
and on pace to be its number-one economy.
Xi Jinping really wants to take this moment
and say China has arrived.
(Xi speaks in foreign language)
(audience applauding)
- [Jonathan] Nobody thought
that the CCP would be this successful
when it was founded in 1921, whether it be in science,
technology, in sports and the economy.
In almost every facet, China is stronger
than it's been in the past and, in a sense,
they're really gonna give
the U.S. and the West a run for its money.
- We're in a race with China and the rest
of the world for the 21st century.
They're not waiting, they're investing tens of billions
of dollars across the board.
- But to surpass the U.S.,
China will have to overcome several challenges.
(people murmuring)
This is a time when China's economy is recovering
from the coronavirus pandemic earlier than everywhere else
and that's left China looking pretty strong.
Its economy is expected to grow by 8.5% this year,
and it was gaining ground not only in the U.S.,
but it was adding ground
between itself and many of its neighbors.
It was able to take advantage of the demand for exports
all around the world when people needed PPE,
when people needed medical equipment,
when people needed computer equipment.
It's made big leaps in mobile payments,
artificial intelligence, quantum computing,
and even sending a rover to Mars.
(triumphant music)
So part of the strength of the Chinese state
over the last 30 to 40 years has been based on its economy.
It's grown so quickly and with a massive population
it had both a large base of labor
as well as a huge market for Western companies
and other foreign companies to move into China.
What we're starting to see now is that some
of that economic growth is slowing, mainly you have
a population in China that is skewing older and older.
Chinese demographers believe
that China really has about a 10, 15-year window here
before things start to get really bad in terms
of the number of people that you have working,
trying to support X number of people who are retired.
So one of the measures that the Chinese government has taken
was to allow Chinese people to have more babies.
That's because for the better part of the last four decades
China has restricted most families to only having one child.
(guns banging)
One of the most important priorities for Xi Jinping
has been ensuring that China's periphery is secure.
It has Xinjiang, it has Hong Kong,
and we've seen very strong controls put in place there
over the past few years to really make sure
that Beijing's will is first and foremost.
Beijing has drawn global scrutiny for its use
of surveillance technology to keep an eye
on people's activities in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
Beijing has said that national security concerns
in Hong Kong have required it
to take stronger measures in the city.
Chinese authorities have defended the use of surveillance
in Xinjiang as designed to promote
development and security for locals.
- They have an overall goal
to become the leading country in the world,
the wealthiest country in the world,
and the most powerful country in the world.
That's not gonna happen on my watch.
- [Jonathan] Biden's rhetoric has actually been very tough
since he became president and he has said
that genocide is what is happening in Xinjiang.
- DHS is deeply concerned by credible and growing reports
of China's state-sponsored use of forced labor
and other human rights violations in the Xinjiang region.
(Zhao speaks in foreign language)
- Biden has said that, in contrast to his predecessor,
he wants to work with other democracies to stand up
to autocratic governments like China's.
It seems like in Washington Biden has now reflected
and captured the zeitgeist there
that says China is fundamentally different from us
in terms of their values and they're gaining ground on us
in a way that we should be very worried about.
Over the next 10 to 15 years, Xi has made it very clear
that he wants to build self-sufficiency.
I think he's recognized that China's too reliant
in some ways on the West in areas like semiconductors
and technologies with military applications,
and China is definitely doing things in its own way.
It's stepped up control of big and powerful tech companies,
such as the fintech giant Ant and how it handles
the user data that it generates.
(Xi speaks in foreign language)
- [Jonathan] What Xi Jinping says and wants is for China
to be able to keep its prosperity
but also be more ideologically committed
to the Communist underpinning that first inspired
the founders of the Communist Party here in China.
(audience applauding)
He also wants a country where the people are gonna be
more loyal to China than they have been in the past.
(gentle music)