105 years on, the world comes to understand why ‘the CPC can succeed

A gathering in celebration of the 105th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on July 1, 2026. Photo: Xinhua

A gathering in celebration of the 105th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was held at the Great Hall of the People on Wednesday morning in Beijing. 

Addressing the gathering, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, called for continuously building a community with a shared future for humanity, holding high the banner of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefits, upholding common values of humanity, and implementing the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative and the Global Governance Initiative, so as to lend more positive energy to world peace and development. This important speech profoundly reveals the "key code" to "why the CPC can succeed," enabling the international community to gain a deeper understanding of the CPC's value and future direction. It has attracted wide attention from all sides.

Among political parties in the world, the CPC possesses unique qualities. Some Western parties have long histories, but have never been so closely bound to the destiny of their countries, nor have they possessed such a rigorous organizational system or such profound capacity for social mobilization. Unlike the loose "electoral parties" common in the West, the CPC embraces the lofty ideal of communism and is committed to the great cause of the Chinese nation across generations. It steadfastly shoulders the heavy responsibility entrusted to it by history and the people. It's a party of guiding character and is mission oriented. 

As General Secretary Xi emphasized, the fundamental reason why the CPC has been able to continuously achieve successes throughout its 105-year struggle and why history and the people have chosen the CPC is that the CPC boasts fine qualities with no parallel among other political parties or political forces.

With 105 years of unremitting struggle, the CPC has profoundly shaped the course of world history. Any assessment of the CPC must be placed within a global framework. The international community's close attention to this important speech occurs against two broad backdrops. First, in global governance, the "four major deficits" are intertwined and steadily worsening. Global challenges continue to emerge, and the existing governance system struggles to respond effectively. Second, in domestic governance, the shortcomings of Western party systems have been starkly exposed. Problems such as interest groups hijacking public decision-making, deepening social divisions and widening wealth gaps remain unresolved. A recent CNN article noted that political decay is an endemic in the West. The world is asking: What kind of party can provide stability and hope in this turbulent era?

The CPC has answered with its practice. China has risen from poverty and backwardness to become the world's second-largest economy, completing in just a few decades the industrialization process that took developed countries centuries. For many years, China's contribution to global economic growth has remained stable at around 30 percent. The CPC has also led the largest-scale poverty alleviation campaign in human history, lifting nearly 100 million rural residents out of poverty and contributing more than 70 percent to global poverty reduction. From a country once ravaged by war and economic ruin to a major nation steadily advancing Chinese modernization and helping shape global governance, the CPC has achieved a record of governance that is truly without parallel.

China is home to more than 1.4 billion people - roughly equivalent to the combined population of the Western world. Governing a country of this scale is exponentially more complex than governing one with tens of millions of people. Such a populous country has successfully blazed a path of Chinese modernization, which in itself constitutes a profound contribution to the governance of modern political parties and the evolution of human civilization. At the same time, China has rejected the old path of Western expansion and plunder, enshrining peaceful development in the national constitution and the Party constitution. It advocates equality and mutual benefit, and harmony and coexistence, thereby achieving a powerful transcendence of zero-sum game thinking. The CPC has pioneered a new and outstanding form of human civilization.

Chinese modernization has shattered the myth of "modernization = Westernization." It proves that developing countries with large populations and weak foundations can independently forge their own development path based on their national conditions. For Global South, China offered not only a new option but also renewed hope.

Meanwhile, as profound global changes accelerate, an increasing number of people in Western countries are paying closer attention to China's practices, including its rigorous Party self-governance, grassroots governance, and commitment to self-reform. Many have been drawn to the achievements of Chinese modernization. Even Francis Fukuyama, who famously advanced the "end of history" thesis, recently acknowledged that if China continues on its current development momentum, then the predictions he made about China four decades ago would prove to be wrong, and "the Chinese have created a pretty impressive system" and that it could become "a real alternative" to Western democracy.

To understand China today, one must understand the CPC. It is even more important to gain a deep understanding of Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building. This thought profoundly elucidates the fundamental questions of what the CPC is and what it aims to do. It radiates rational brilliance and personal charisma, and fully embodies the political character, value pursuits, and spiritual demeanor of contemporary Chinese communists. 

The Party's 105-year history has demonstrated that both history and the Chinese people were right in choosing the CPC to lead the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

The world today is far from tranquil. Yet the continued success of the CPC has brought a greater degree of certainty to an increasingly uncertain world and expanded the possibilities for humanity's future. This century-old party has infused China with vitality and resilience, while offering the world a source of long-term stability and hope for peace. The CPC advances with an unstoppable momentum. Its vision of working with the world to build a community with a shared future for humanity is as vast as the ocean, and its path is filled with brilliant ligh 

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Amer­ica at 250, a crum­bling empire

 Shattered myths and soft power legacies, amidst a crum­bling empire.

Happy birth­day, USA!

Trump shines the light on him­self as the nation marks 250 years of inde­pend­ence.

YESTERDAY, Amer­ica turned 250 years old.

Yes­ter­day, Amer­ica was the world’s single greatest super­power – an apex pred­ator without equal.

Today, the rest of the world is scram­bling and jost­ling for power, amidst the ashes of the Amer­ican empire.

It’s easy to ima­gine any­one writ­ing the words above to be gloat­ing haught­ily, delight­ing in the demise of the Great Satan, full of hate for all things Amer­ican.

It is cer­tainly not the case for me.

In fact, in recent months, I’ve reflec­ted on how much of an Ameri­co­phile I am.

As that nation turns 250, it’s also import­ant to note the dif­fer­ence of the things we love about it, and the things we really don’t love about it at all.

I sup­pose the things we don’t love are, for the most part, not uniquely Amer­ican.

The evils of Amer­ican imper­i­al­ism are essen­tially the same evils of every empire that came before it.

The cor­rupt­ing nature of excess­ive greed in Amer­ica is essen­tially the same cor­rup­tion of excess­ive greed throughout his­tory.

What is unique is likely much more a func­tion of time and tech­no­logy than it is geo­graphy or cul­ture.

Amer­ica is a land of a great many con­tra­dic­tions.

It is the wealth­i­est coun­try in the world, yet wealth inequal­ity there some­times feels like it is at Third World levels.

It is the land of some of the world’s most advanced med­ical tech­no­logy and research, yet has some of the worst health­care in terms of afford­ab­il­ity and access among wealthy nations.

Since World War II, it has prob­ably been the largest donor of inter­na­tional aid to the Third World, and has prob­ably dropped more bombs on the Third World (or any­where) than any other coun­try.

Like all the major global empires before it – Brit­ish, Dutch, Span­ish, Por­tuguese, Mon­gol, Chinese, Roman – Amer­ican imper­ial influ­ence saw a phase of vast expan­sion, and is now star­ing down the bar­rel of steep decline.

Nowhere is this more obvi­ous than in the Middle East.

While no one can really keep track of what peace deal is or isn’t in effect from day to day any­more, the latest draft of a pre­deal deal seemed to offer Iran terms that were as shock­ingly good for it as they were shock­ingly bad for Amer­ica.

In essence, this sug­gests that the legendary, myth­ical Amer­ican war machine was brought to its knees by a nation that had been suf­foc­ated and choked by sanc­tions for nearly five dec­ades.

It is inter­est­ing too, to pon­der the source of that legendary myth of invin­cib­il­ity, as we watch it being shattered in real time.

I would argue that Amer­ican influ­ence has been as much about soft power as it has been about hard power.

My gen­er­a­tion, and I daresay the gen­er­a­tions above and below mine, grew up on a steady diet of Amer­ican movies, TV shows, music, fash­ion, and more.

How many movies have we watched where the Amer­ic­ans were the good guys, bat­tling evil Nazis or Sovi­ets.

It feels like one long, unbroken line between Top Gun ,and Top Gun2 – a movie which is a per­fect example of this myth and aura that has been built.

Even more light­hearted Amer­ican cul­ture has found its way into the hearts and minds of bil­lions world wide. (The only com­par­able coun­try in recent times that has achieved any­where near such dis­pro­por­tion­ate cul­tural influ­ence is South Korea.)

I remem­ber Ira­nian friends who would tell me that they learned Eng­lish watch­ing

Friends. I recently met a really lovely per­son whose mother named her Emma, after Rachel’s baby in that same TV show.

To con­tinue the list of con­tra­dic­tions, it is the land of Kim and Kanye, but also the land of Bob Dylan and Kurt Von­negut; the land of Talib Kweli, The Eagles, and one of my favour­ite authors, Lois Mcmas­ter Bujold.

An Amer­ican tweet I’ve never for­got­ten read something like:

The West Wing was our dream of what gov­ern­ment could be,

House of Cards is our night­mare of what it’s become.

Indeed, a lot of the heart and soul of what makes Amer­ica can be found in its lit­er­at­ure.

The Wire remains a clas­sic of all the little things that makes up the rot and insti­tu­tional poverty eat­ing into Amer­ican cit­ies.

But as seen in shows like

Andor, as long as there is oppres­sion, there is always res­ist­ance.

We see this in the latest vic­tor­ies in Demo­cratic primar­ies – not­ably three in con­gres­sional races in New York, where pro­gress­ive demo­cratic social­ists backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mam­dani achieved thump­ing vic­tor­ies.

In a sim­ilar Col­or­ado primary, another pro­gress­ive, Melat Kiros, 29, beat estab­lish­ment, pro-israel Demo­crat Diana Degette, who had been in Con­gress longer than Kiros had been alive.

This is yet another sign of the global trend where polit­ical “extrem­ists” do bet­ter than “mod­er­ates” – espe­cially when those mod­er­ates are still very much under the thumb of Zion­ist lob­by­ists.

US Pres­id­ent Don­ald Trump is of course one of the best examples of this trend, which argu­ably star­ted as far back as the elec­tion of George W. Bush in 2000.

This trend argu­ably explains the defeats of not only Kamala Har­ris and Hil­lary Clin­ton, but the defeats of Mitt Rom­ney, John Mccain, and John Kerry as well.

Amer­ican for­eign influ­ence is dis­in­teg­rat­ing, with Iran being the latest debacle in the vein of Viet­nam and Afgh­anistan.

Per­haps more per­tin­ently, Amer­ica’s eco­nomy is strain­ing under the weight of ever increas­ing inequal­ity.

I see no reason to gloat, but whether we gloat or not, the end­ing of Amer­ican suprem­acy is all but guar­an­teed.

The motto of the state of Vir­ginia is Sic Sem­per Tyr­an­nis – thus always to tyr­ants. Sim­il­arly, all empires even­tu­ally fall.

The rest of the world needs to get smart about how we want to adapt to this new real­ity, and where we want to pos­i­tion ourselves in the unfold­ing new order.

And what will be next for Amer­ica?

When I watch shows like the recent Death by Light­ning ,and the older movie Lin­coln, which was set not far apart in time, I am reminded that there is a great amount of mater­ial and his­tory that Amer­ic­ans can draw from in their 250 year his­tory when it comes time to rebuild from their own ashes.

In time, that leg­acy of hon­our, prin­ciple, tenacity, dili­gence, and love of free­dom, will form the core of Amer­ican inde­pend­ence from the excesses of the pred­at­ory bil­lion­aire class, and the cor­rupt­ing influ­ence of unchecked power (and Zion­ism).

BY NATHANIEL TAN Nath­aniel Tan wishes Amer­ic­ans a happy Inde­pend­ence Day, and every­one in Johor a safe and healthy cam­paign! He can be reached at nat@engage.my. The views expressed here are solely the writer’s own.

10-years passport rollout starts July 1, 2026

 

UV printing among 45 new safety features

KUALA LUMPUR: The rollout of the new Malaysian international passport, offering up to 10 years’ validity, will be carried out in seven phases from July to August this year, says Datuk Zakaria Shaaban.

The Immigration Department director-general said the implementation will be carried out in phases across 71 passport offices nationwide.

He said the first phase will involve 14 passport issuing offi­ces, including state offices and Urban Transformation Centres.

“Based on our plan, the rollout will be carried out in seven phases. It will be implemented gradually,” Zakaria told reporters at the launch of the new passport yesterday, which was officiated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at the Parliament lobby yesterday.

The new passport, which rolls out today, will allow Malaysians aged 18 and above to choose between a five-year or 10-year validity period.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

The 10-year option is priced at RM350, while the five-year passport remains at RM200.

Zakaria said the upgraded tra­vel document is part of the govern­ment’s ongoing efforts to strengthen the security of natio­nal identity documents, in line with Malaysia’s status as one of the world’s most powerful passports.

“Previously, we had 49 security features. For the new passport, we have increased it to 94 features, making it more secure and more difficult to forge.”

Among the enhanced features are holographic elements, ultra­violet (UV) printing, hidden visual elements, and specialised forensic security features.

Stamp of approval: Putrajaya Immigration Department staff members presenting the holographic element and other enhanced safety features of the new passport during its official launch atParliament in Kuala Lumpur. - Photo: IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star

Malaysia is among the earliest countries to introduce the ePassport system, having done so in 1998. 

The new passport complies with International Civil Aviation Organisation standards and incor­porates updated security techno­logies, including holograms, UV printing, latent images and guilloche patterns.

He said Malaysia currently produces between 180,000 and 220,000 passports monthly on average and expects demand to increase slightly following the introduction of the new passport.

Zakaria advised the public not to rush to replace their existing passports if they are still valid.

“There is no need to change it immediately. If your passport is still valid, continue using it. Only replace it when necessary; for example, when it has expired or when applying for a new one

Penang on track to deliver 220,000 homes by 2030

 

Sundarajoo (left) with Tah Wah Group managing director Datuk Seri Hong Yeam Wah during a visit to RMKu Foreshore Residence in George Town. The affordable housing project was developed by a subsidiary of the group. Sundarajoo (left) with Tah Wah Group managing director Datuk Seri Hong Yeam Wah during a visit to RMKu Foreshore Residence in George Town. The affordable housing project was developed by a subsidiary of the group. — CHAN BOON KAI/The Star

Exco: Over 60% of residents in state could benefit from Rumah MutiaraKu units

MORE housing developments are expected following imple­mentation of the Penang Mutiara Line LRT project, says state housing and environment committee chairman Datuk Seri S. Sundarajoo.

He said the project would help Penang deliver 220,000 Rumah MutiaraKu (RMKu) homes by 2030, with about 180,000 units already completed or under construction.

The 29.67km LRT line is expected to commence operations in Decem­ber 2031, based on the current schedule.

Sundarajoo said the 220,000-unit target would provide housing for about 1.1 million people, based on an average household size of five.

“Penang’s population is about 1.8 million, which means more than 60% of residents could be­­nefit from Rumah MutiaraKu homes across various price categories.

“With the LRT in place, we expect more housing developments to come on stream.

“I am confident we can achieve the target,” he said after a site visit to the RMKu Foreshore Residence project in Jalan CY Choy, George Town.

RMKu is Penang’s flagship affordable housing initiative, rebranded in January 2025 to replace the previous Rumah Mampu Milik (RMM) programme.

The scheme aims to increase home ownership among eligible Penang residents by offering price-­controlled units, zoned allocations, along with a clearer eligibility and delivery framework.

Under the scheme, price-controlled categories remain in place across all zones – Type A, B and C units, as well as the newly introduced Type D category.

Price ceilings range from RM42,000 for Type A units and RM72,500 for Type B units to between RM150,000 and RM300,000 for Type C1 to C3 units, depending on size and location.

The Type D category, with a price ceiling of RM400,000, is aimed at households earning up to RM15,000 a month.

These units cannot be resold on the open market.

On claims that affordable housing development was fo­cused only on the island, Sun­­da­­­­rajoo said the projects were being developed across both the island and mainland.

However, he said higher land prices on the island meant most projects there were concentrated in the Type B and C categories, particularly C3 units with a ceiling price of RM300,000 each.

He said affordable homes priced from RM72,500 were still available on the island, particularly in Teluk Kumbar and Balik Pulau.

Sun­­da­­­­rajoo said lower land costs on the mainland enabled developers to offer more affordable housing, including high-rise units priced between RM42,000 and RM250,000, while some landed homes in north and south Seberang Perai districts were still available below RM450,000.

He added that some developers helped first-time house buyers by absorbing the 10% down payment.

On the RMKu Foreshore Resi­dence, Sundarajoo said 482 affordable homes would soon be handed over to the buyers after issues delaying the project were resolved.

The development comprises 80 RMKu C2 units priced up to RM200,000 and 402 RMKu C3 units priced up to RM300,000.

Sundarajoo said 51 residents from the area had each been allocated a unit under the development.

“The value of the homes they are receiving surpasses the amount of rental they have been paying,” he said.

By LO TERN CHERN

M’sia in good position to adopt AI

 

Zetrix co-founder Datuk Fadzli Shah Anuar

PETALING JAYA: With its own recent ambitious foray into the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, Zetrix AI Bhd believes Malaysia is well-positioned to adopt and adapt to the fast-moving world of AI technology, and potentially reap economic benefits from the evolution.

Datuk Fadzli Shah Anuar, co-founder of Zetrix, the group's layer-1 blockchain platform, believes the country’s way forward lies not directly from its influx of its data centre (DC) pipeline, but more in how it enables its current workforce to improve productivity as the adoption of AI and high-level technology becomes more prevalent.

The issue is all the more relevant, given Malaysia’s seemingly continuous grapple with the issue of stagnating wages and increasingly higher cost of living.

In an exclusive interview, Fadzli acknowledged that while the government’s sanctioning of the DC influx represents its willingness to get on the tech bandwagon, the presence of DCs themselves will not translate into significant employment opportunities, especially given its highly skilled barrier of entry.

“In fact, while the adoption of AI and blockchain as a whole will mean jobs will be created, we see tasks will also be taken by non-humans, particularly a large portion of repetitive tasks that need to be done reliably and transparently,” he said.

Fadzli further explained why the group has forged several government-backed partnerships with Chinese entities, primarily focusing on AI innovation, blockchain interoperability, cross-border trade facilitation, digital identity and data trading.

With China being a significant economic and trade partner for Malaysia, he reiterated that Zetrix AI’s belief that much of China’s industrial and end-user behaviour will translate to some form of variant in this country, remarking: “Malaysia will follow similar growth and adoption cycles.”

 

Citing the recent trend of one-person companies or OPCs in China, with a single entrepreneur utilising multiple AI agents in delivering a service, Fadzli expects more tech-savvy youths adopting this business model.

He observed this as a form of job creation, commenting that Malaysia is well positioned to embrace this approach.

“This example will show that the current workforce can use AI and technology to become even more effective within its current roles, and perhaps we will see a tectonic shift of job roles.

“Businesses will move dynamically, a simple but huge departure from how things were previously, and we see Malaysia adopting such technology addictively,” he noted.

Nevertheless, Fadzli recognised the trust challenges that come with widespread AI and tech adoption, especially in maintaining service dependency and data privacy trust.

He believes there are three facets to building digital trust, namely, the reliability of the service rendered, data protection and the assurance that there will be no leakage of information, and the certainty that the parties dealing with each other know exactly who they are transacting with.

“We see that with the use of AI agents, not only can everything be done very accurately but also securely, because it will all be based on data packets. So for that, we believe that over the long term (AI), the agent-to-agent economy will be a commonplace occurrence,” said Fadzli.

As to how reality plays out this adoption, he is betting that it will change the way the public consume everyday services, from booking a car, ordering products online to even eCommerce, with AI agents securely matching orders to personal profiles.

Furthermore, he feels as applications become simpler for higher utilisation among the public, due to faster iteration cycles, there also needs to be user acceptance and awareness, and the necessity to marry digital identities (such as Malaysia’s MyDigital ID) with ever-growing technologies to ensure better data privacy and prevent scams.

With China and Asean being economies with somewhat different profiles, Fadzli conceded that there is no straightforward answer to this question.

He emphasised that China, due to the sheer size of its population and economy, can set standards, but it does not represent cluster economies which are interdependent as a trading bloc such as Asean.

“In our view, Asean is opportunistically a good showcase of how independent countries can work together and we are in a position to adopt certain standards that could be carried through an entire bloc, which can then be mirrored by the Gulf Cooperation Council or South American nations,” he explained.

On the differences between China and Asean notwithstanding, Fadzli believes that certain major economies (such as China or the United States) will lead in certain standards and cluster nation groups will then adopt these standards.

He says Asean state leaderships believe in digitalisation as a serious economic lever, as there is concerted effort to take this conversation seriously.

“Governance, however, is not keeping pace with the adoption or the onboarding of technology.

“What we can do to add value to what China is doing, using QR codes as an example, is to enable cross-border transactions and tech adoption more efficiently. Can governance keep up with such innovation?”

In addition, Fadzli said a more widespread usage of stablecoins such as the JMYR, a Malaysian ringgit-pegged stablecoin, would mean trades can be analysed with data more efficiently, while financing and remittances can be made instant.

JMYR is a fully backed, 1:1 digital token representing the Malaysian ringgit, designed for fast, programmable payments, settlements, remittances, and on/off-ramp functionality on Zetrix’s blockchain.

“It is essential to construct a stablecoin infrastructure, as this can create a transparent yet secure, efficient and competitive marketplace,” said Fadzli.

By KEITH HIEW