President Xi Jinping marked the 75th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China on Tuesday with a glowing review of the Communist Party’s achievements since late supreme leader Mao Zedong founded the country on Oct. 1, 1949.
Some 120,000 people gathered to sing the national anthem in Tiananmen Square, where Xi described the founding of communist China as “a watershed moment in the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization,” the Xinhua agency reported.
“Doves and balloons were released, and tears glistened in many eyes,” it gushed.
But the day held a very different meaning for Uyghurs, Tibetans and Hong Kongers who have felt Beijing’s iron grip in their lives and societies. Many held protests in cities around the world.
“Oct. 1 is the day when the Chinese communists invaded our homeland East Turkestan,” Qelbinur Sidiq, who taught at a Uyghur concentration camp in China, said at a protest in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Saturday.
“While they celebrate this as a national holiday, Uyghurs mark the day as the 75th anniversary of their occupation,” he said. “For Uyghurs, it is a day of mourning.”
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