Chinese Communist Party honours ‘ordinary heroes’ with centenary medal
- Xi Jinping presents July 1 awards and urges party members to keep their spirits high while facing challenges ahead
- None of the 29 recipients were drawn from senior ranks but were chosen to represent achievements at frontline of policy areas
Xi, who is also party chief, called on his fellow members to keep their spirits high while facing the challenges ahead. “The greater the cause, the greater the challenges are,” he said after giving out the July 1 medals in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
“All party members need to keep the spirit of daring to make sun and moon shine in new skies,” he said, quoting a poem by Mao Zedong.
All recipients of the medals were party members at the frontline of key policy areas, although no senior leaders, five-star generals or prominent business heads were included. “The July 1 Medal recipients come from the people and are rooted in the people,” said Xi, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Xi described the recipients as “ordinary heroes” and said their contributions were achievable and their spirits reachable by all.
