Commentary links Long March spirit to Hong Kong
HK01 · 1 SOURCESabout 3 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
An opinion article by Yang Li-shan says the 90th anniversary of the Long March victory should be read not as nostalgia but as a contemporary political message about how China should move forward. It argues that Hong Kong, too, should treat the Long March as part of its civic and national memory, and use that spirit to resist passivity and support youth education and closer links with national development
Key Points
- The article opens with the 90th anniversary commemoration of the Long March victory, where President Xi Jinping said at the Great Hall of the People that “the history of the Long March has never gone far away, and the road of the Long March continues to extend.”
- Yang says Xi framed the Long March victory as the product of four factors: correct party leadership, firm revolutionary will, independence and truth-seeking, and support from the people
- The commentary says the commemorative meeting set out “five musts” for a “new Long March,” including upholding ideals, pursuing high-quality development and common prosperity, engaging in struggle, building a world-class military, and maintaining party leadership with strict self-governance
- The article cites historical details including a Red Army force of more than 86,000 at departure and severe attrition before reaching Wuqi Town, using that experience to argue that hardship forged cohesion rather than collapse
- Yang says a Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao media alliance retracing the Long March route shows the history is not exclusive to the mainland, and notes the Hong Kong government has approved more than 40 Long March-themed exchange projects involving more than 2,000 youth places
Why It Matters
For Hong Kong readers, the piece ties national historical memory directly to local identity by arguing that the Long March spirit shares roots with the Lion Rock ethos and can be translated into education, economic links and Greater Bay Area integration. It also frames current policy debates in Hong Kong against a broader political message that the city should reject “lying flat” narratives and align more actively with national development goals