BEIJING, China (GroundReport) – China has begun its National Day celebrations Monday by highlighting the Beijing Olympics and the country’s first spacewalk.
Both of these events were clearly two hard-won successes in a troubling year for China, underscored by ethnic unrest, natural disasters, and food safety scandals.
Saturday’s spacewalk augmented to the wave of Chinese pride and nationalism stemming from the Olympics. The Beijing Olympics is still a big news story in the domestic media even after a month after it ended. Olympic heroes from China were honored in a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, which was televised nationally, reports the Associated Press.
Vice President Xi Jinping, who was in charge of oversight for the Beijing Summer Games, lauded what was essentially China’s actualization of a 100-year dream to host the Olympics
”The successful holding of the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics has carried forward the Olympic spirit, improved the understanding and friendship between Chinese people and all people of the world,” Xi was quoted as saying by AP. ”It has … shown the world the great achievements of reform and opening and the building of socialist modernization.”