my guest is victor gao, party loyalist and one—time translator for deng xiaoping.able is the party's grip on china? victor gao in beijing, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much for having me. it is the 100th anniversary of the chinese communist party. would you agree that perhaps that's more a recognition of the party's devotion to raw power than it is to ideological purity? well, i think china is celebrating the centenary of the founding of the communist party of china, the biggest, largest, most important political party ever in human history, with almost 100 million party members. and the party is, indeed, invasive. it's omnipotent and omnipresent. however, i would say if any political force anywhere in the world really has some justification to be very proud of its achievements, it is the communist party of china. it has very solid track records. and i think this celebration is not only celebrating the communist party of china, but also the great transformation that china has gone through over the past a245 years in particular, or ever since 1949. this is no

their achievements since china opened up achievements since china opened up to the world under deng xiaopingo an indication to the us, to western liberal democracies that china is seeking to be on par, if not greater, and it wants to be a peaceful power, but under the current tensions between the us and also between here and china, we see that it is creating a lot of friction for what china seeks to achieve in the world. the other line that dropped out from the speech was about china being on a irreversible historical course. what does he mean by that? we have seen over the past few years that xi jinping is getting stronger. has led the way in terms of being a leader in production of solar power, solar panels, in climate change responsibility, but china is also doing its part in the pandemic as well — providing vaccines to developing countries, but it wants to be on the same level as the us, it wants to be recognised as a global leader as well as a global leader as well as a global power, and this desire is in many ways, for xi jinping, cementing his rule, cementing his power both at home in

he referenced the reform started under deng xiaoping. he said it would deepen and continue. they had a message for the international audience. he said he would accept criticism if it is accompanied by goodwill but we will not -- china or the party --be bullied by sanctimonious lectures. he said that attempt would be met with steel forged by 1.4 billion people. he referenced hong kong and taiwan. host: it's about poverty alleviation. was he not talking about creating a moderately prosperous society? tom: absolutely. this is a key achievement of the communist party. the fact that 800 million people according to the world bank have been alleviated from dire poverty over the last few decades. the fact that per capita income has increased to over 10,000 u.s. dollars. the fact that china will be by the end of this decade the world's largest economy. the fact that life expectancy has gone from 35 when the ccp took over in 1949 to 77. those are the kind of economic and life-changing metrics the party will .2. the poverty alleviation campaign was central to xi's policies. the concern