2024-10-09
7 分钟The Economist Hello, this is Alice Su, co-host of Drum Tower, our weekly podcast on China.
We've chosen an unmissable article from the latest edition of The Economist.
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In late September, workers erected a new structure in Tiananmen Square.
It is 18 meters tall, resembling a basket of fruit and flowers.
Similar floral-themed displays have sprung up across Beijing in celebration of the 75th anniversary on October 1st of the founding of Communist China.
This one bulges with giant peaches and gourds, symbols of long life.
But China's leader Xi Jinping worries about how long-lived his party's rule will be.
Amid the festivities,
state media have avoided mention of another milestone that this year's National Day represents.
At the time of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991,
communists had been in power for 74 years in Moscow.
The Chinese Communist Party has now surpassed Big Brother,
as it once called the Soviet Union.
When that empire disintegrated,
the bloody suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 was a recent memory.
With ruthless resolve,
China's party crushed opposition and kept itself safe from the shockwaves emanating from Moscow.
Now in his speeches,
Mr. Xi frets about how officials' vigilance has been weakened by years of prosperity,