New Delhi: Chinese President Xi Jinping awarded the July 1 Medal, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) highest honour, to 29 party members including army veterans and a Uyghur village official for the first time ever.
According to a report in the Quishi Journal, the official theoretical journal of the CCP, the ceremony was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, ahead of the party’s 100th anniversary.
Chen Hongjun, a soldier who died when Indian and Chinese troops clashed in Ladakh last year, and Memetjan Wumer, a Uyghur village official in Xinjiang, were among the awardees.
During the ceremony, Xi said that over the past 100 years, the party “has written a splendid chapter in the history of the Chinese nation’s development and that of humanity’s progress”.
The CCP has over 95.1 million members and nearly 4.9 million primary-level organisations, according to data from the Organisation Department of the CCP Central Committee Wednesday.
Party membership is open to those above 18 years who accept the party’s programme and Constitution and pay membership dues.
According to the party’s Constitution, they are meant to be a vanguard fighting for the Chinese working class. They also have a duty to attend meetings, keep up to date with political documents and participate in discussions through the party’s journals and newspapers.
Also read: Communist Party of China turns 100 — what its long history says and what future could hold
22 awardees attended ceremony, 6 were women
The 29 CCP members were awarded for “outstanding contributions to the party and the people”, some posthumously.
Among the 29 recipients of the medal, 22 attended the ceremony in Beijing, six of whom were women, according to pictures on Quishi Journal’s website. According to government data, women comprise 28.8 per cent of the total number of CCP members.
Among the six women who attended the ceremony was wheelchair-bound Ma Maojie, reportedly part of the Yangtze River Crossing campaign during the War of Liberation (1946-49). The other women included community volunteer Wang Lanhua, women’s education activist Zhang Guimei and Zhoigar, a guardian of the borders on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Among the 16 male awardees present in the ceremony was former police officer Cui Daozhi. He is among China’s first generation of forensic police officers who has made major breakthroughs in trace evidence examination, according to a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson.
Cui Daozhi of the #Korean ethnic group is known as China's Holmes. He is among China's 1st generation of forensic police officers with major breakthroughs in trace evidence examination. Even in his 80s, he solved complex cases & filled academic gaps. #July1MedalAwardees pic.twitter.com/tp2rqUysTm
— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) June 30, 2021
Renowned Chinese actor Lan Tianye and Uygur village official Wei Deyou were also conferred the July 1 medal.
Others included Wang Zhanshan, a war hero who participated in the Korean War and other battles, Ai Aiguo, a welder, Lyu Qiming, a composer whose works include many revolution-themed songs and Qu Duyi, a veteran journalist who worked for Xinhua News Agency.
(Edited by Rachel John)
Also read: Xi Jinping’s successor likely to be biggest question for CCP as it turns 100, say experts