China Perspective

Journalists start tour on Party history

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-03 06:59

Beijing - A total of 125 domestic and foreign journalists on Thursday embarked on a multimedia reporting tour that will include destinations that played a major part in the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The group, including 25 foreign reporters from more than 10 countries, will travel to Shanghai and the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan and Shaanxi to explore the history of the CPC, according to China Radio International (CRI), the sponsor of the one-month trip.

"Renowned US journalist Edgar Snow went deep into CPC revolutionary bases in Northwest China more than 70 years ago. Afterward, he wrote Red Star Over China based on his observations and findings," said CRI Director-General Wang Gengnian on Thursday at the tour's opening ceremony.

Wang added that the book, with its fair and just views of the CPC, reported Party-led revolutionary activities in an objective manner and allowed hundreds of millions of readers around the world to get a closer look at China.

"I've read some things about the Red Army's march and can try to imagine their pains and hardships, but I never thought I would have the chance to actually explore these historical sites and listen to people talk about the past," said Allie Johnson, a CRI foreign expert from Canada and tour participant.

"This trip will give me a chance to better understand China's history," Johnson added.

On the eve of the 90th anniversary of the birth of the CPC, a number of prestigious overseas politicians, scholars and media have expressed their admiration and appreciation for the remarkable achievements made by the Party over the past nine decades.

In a recent interview with Xinhua News Agency, Henry Kissinger, former US secretary of state, attributed China's astounding achievements to its visionary leaders and devoted people, who achieved such rapid development in a short period of time.

As an old friend of the Chinese people, Kissinger also said China has made great contributions to the world, and that its development model has great international significance.

In an article on Wednesday, the Chicago China News & Digest, a Chinese-language newspaper in the United States, said that only after the founding of the CPC could the fractured Chinese people find a leadership to rally around and rejuvenate the nation, the article said.

History testifies that only the CPC can act as the leading force of China's development, as well as the mainstay and basic guarantee for the Chinese nation to realize its "great rejuvenation", it added.

Paul Evans, director of the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia, said that due to the leadership of the CPC, China has made remarkable achievements, increasingly expanded its international influence and greatly improved its people's standard of living.

Xinhua

(China Daily 06/03/2011 page11)