CHINA / SOCIETY
Xi highlights Youth League’s significance, raises expectations for youth on centennial of CYLC’s founding
Published: May 10, 2022 10:57 AM Updated: May 10, 2022 03:57 PM
Photo:Xinhua
Photo:Xinhua


 Marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, delivered a speech at a ceremony held in Beijing on Tuesday morning. 

Xi stressed the history and significance of the CYLC as the bridge between the CPC and the young people, nodded to the youth of China’s new era, and raised eager expectations for them. 

The CYLC, founded on May 5, 1922 under the direct leadership of the CPC, is a milestone in the history of the Chinese revolution and the history of youth movement, Xi said. He noted that celebrating the centennial of the CYLC is to encourage its members to forge ahead on the new journey to realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. 

“The original aspiration and mission of the CYLC is to follow the CPC’s leadership, fight for the people and the Party,” he continued. 

The CYLC is a school for young people to understand socialism with Chinese characteristics and communism in practice, Xi said, adding that the league should help them aim high at an early age and cultivate the trust in the CPC, in socialism with Chinese characteristics and in Marxism from the bottom of their heart.

Xi urged CYLC members in the new era to build up firm beliefs, to boost their courage and skills to carry out struggles, and to be patriotic and innovative. 

The cause of the Party and the people entails the endeavor and devotion by generations of young people, Xi said, stressing that young people should devote their youth to great undertakings of the Party and the people.

Praising the youth of China in the new era, Xi said that the CYLC members have taken up responsibility and have contributed to the Party's and country's historic achievements.

"My pure love is only for China" – the fighting slogan written by 18-year-old Chen Xiangrong, one of the four young Chinese martyrs who died in 2020 in a clash with the Indian military in Galwan Valley – has become the strongest voice and greatest dream and mission of contemporary Chinese youth, he said. 

Summing up the experience from the CYLC’s successes, Xi noted that the Party’s leadership, firm beliefs and convictions, devotion to national rejuvenation, and its deep roots in the country's young people are the key.

He went on to commend the CYLC's devotion to national rejuvenation, which has consistently been the mainstream of China's youth movement, as well as its efforts to take deep roots among the country's youth by focusing its work on the overwhelming majority of young workers, farmers and other young people.

Xi also pointed out that the CYLC should remain the strongest bond between the CPC and the Chinese youth. Xi said that the CPC always opens its doors to young people and warmly welcomes them to become the fresh blood in the Party.

“The hopes of the CPC and the country rest on the youth,” he said, noting that Party organizations at all levels should attach great importance to the cultivation and development of young Party members to ensure that our socialist country will never change its nature.

Global Times