The Long March was “a great feat in human history,”and “epic” and a “human miracle” says Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Xi, also the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made the remarks at a gathering on Friday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Long March.
Xi said the Red Army’s Long March, full of the spirit of idealism and dedication, was a “human epic composed of will and courage” and “an epic of mankind’s unremitting efforts to pursue truth and brightness.”
Xi said that during the Long March, Red Army officers and soldiers fought more than 600 battles against the enemies, crossed about a hundred rivers, climbed over 40 steep mountains and trekked over the grassland.
With their strong will, they overcame human physical limits, represented a dramatic episode in world military history and achieved a glorious human miracle, Xi said.
In October 1934, during a civil war, embattled Chinese Communists broke through Nationalist enemy lines and began an epic flight from their encircled headquarters in southwest China. Known as the Long March, the trek lasted a year and covered more than 4,000 miles. The Long March marked the emergence of Mao Zedong (1893-1976) as the undisputed leader of the Chinese Communists.
After enduring starvation, aerial bombardment and almost daily skirmishes with Nationalist forces, Mao halted his columns in northern Shaanxi on October 20, 1935, where they met other Red army troops. The Long March was over. By some estimates, 8,000 or fewer marchers completed the journey, which covered more than 4,000 miles and crossed 24 rivers and 18 mountain ranges.