China’s Global Times propaganda newspaper applauded the Communist Party for “redefining democracy” as totalitarian rule on Tuesday, arguing that, on the 70th anniversary of the party, China has proven a viable alternative to Western freedom.

The Communist Party (CPC) held a massive parade featuring 100,000 people marching on Tuesday and prominently featuring icons of dictator Xi Jinping, who gave a speech claiming that communism marked “the end of more than 100 years of humiliation and misery the country had suffered since modern times.”

“Today, a socialist China is standing the midst of the world and there is no force that can shake the foundation of this great nation,” he declared.

China’s communism has killed tens of thousands of people – 45 million through starvation during Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward alone. The Communist Party continues to “disappear” political dissidents into torture centers and maintains concentration camps populated with millions of Muslim Uighur, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz Chinese people. Xi has also exacerbated the repression of Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners, and human rights attorneys.

The Global Times celebrated this history of crimes against humanity.

“Within seven decades, China has completed the industrialization process which developed countries took hundreds of years to achieve and grown to become the second-largest economy from wallowing in poverty and bleakness,” the Global Times proclaimed in an article Tuesday, refuting the Chinese regime’s claim that it is still a “developing” country.

“The founding of the PRC has changed the global political landscape, encouraging people in colonies and semi-colonies, who were seeking liberation and independence as well. China has been playing a pivotal role in safeguarding global peace and multipolarization,” the newspaper claimed. “In spite of twists and turns along the way, China’s development is of great significance to the world.”

“China’s progress has not only contributed to political and economic changes across the world, but also provided an alternative to the Western development model,” the article claimed. “It offers another option for countries which want to seek development while at the same time maintaining independence.”

The Global Times credited the “shared values” of communism for “the superiority of China’s development path” to the West’s.

“The West’s ‘universal values’ mainly serve to promote the Western model to the rest of the world. The West trumpets any country can succeed as long as it applies Western values and development model,” the newspaper alleged. “Yet it has been proved over decades that it is wrong as every country has a different domestic situation and what can work smoothly in the West may not suit countries in other regions.”

By “redefining democracy” from rule of the people to rule of a tiny wealthy elite, China successfully “transcends the Western democratic concept,” the Global Times stated. This oligarchy guarantees “stability,” the argument continued, erasing “partisan struggle and policy uncertainties” with the iron-fisted rule of a dictator like Xi Jinping. The Global Times presents this as a positive development and preferable to Western civil liberties.

The newspaper concluded by urging the world to join in this “global harmony.”

“The global harmony can be achieved through coexistence, extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits. China’s view for building a community of shared future for mankind is in sharp contrast to some great powers’ moves, such as pursuing unilateralism, tearing up international treaties and withdrawing from international organizations,” the Global Times asserted. “Clearly, China has now taken the moral high ground in the international community.”

China Daily, a state propaganda newspaper aimed at a more international audience, celebrated communism and its millions of victims as a “miracle.”

“The vision of the pioneers, the courage of stewards, the drive to get things done, the determination to persevere when things were not in our favor — all contributed to the great power China is today,” China Daily editor Zhou Shuchun wrote.

Zhou argued that China, as a “modern nation,” has “the mission and responsibility” of helping promote peace by exporting its communist model – or, in his words, “what China has done and how it can do more for the world.”

Following the National Day parade – which Xi turned into a parade in his honor – the Chinese dictator will be feted at a “National Day gala” in Beijing. According to the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, the gala featured gigantic red displays of communist iconography and an elaborate fireworks show.

Amid the festivities, Chinese-controlled Hong Kong officials launched a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, who branded the anniversary of communist rule a “day of mourning” for its victims. For only the third time since anti-China protests erupted in June, police shot live gunfire into crowds of unarmed dissidents, shooting a boy estimated to be about 15 years old in the chest. The boy is believed to be in critical condition and his survival is not guaranteed at press time.

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