In an article captioned 'Study the 100-year history of the Party' (a monograph celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China), the People's Daily (January 29) sought  to emphasise the “correct” view on the Party’s history and outlined what it described as “the theme and the mainline of the party's history.” This narrowed the CCP’s history into three phases i.e.

- revolution and establishment: this covers the years of the civil war to the formation of the CCP;

- reform and social development: this covers Deng’s reforms until Xi Jinping’s era. In this time, “overall national strength is significantly enhanced, and the international status is significantly improved.”; and

- Xi Jinping’s era, with him having “united and led the entire party and the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country, undertaking great struggles, great projects, great undertakings”

The article placed Xi Thought within the context of the long-term theoretical development of the Sinicization of Marxism. It said that  “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is the inheritance and development of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of the "Three Represents", and the scientific development concept. It is the latest achievement of the Sinicization of Marxism and the practical experience of the party and the people.” It added that Xi Thought is the “fundamental guide for us to establish a correct view of history.” “We must correctly deal with the relationship between politics and academics, history and reality, research and propaganda, take a clear-cut stand against historical nihilism, and truly study, research, propagate and defend the Party's century-old history.” It emphasised that “Over the past 100 years, the Communist Party of China has been able to lead the Chinese nation to overcome countless difficulties and obstacles and usher in the great leap from standing up, getting rich to getting strong because the Party's cause represents the direction of history and the fundamental interests of the broadest Chinese people, and the Party's construction has forged the Party to be strong and powerful.”

(Comment: This article again elevates Xi Jinping's standing within the CCP on par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping and refers to his contribution to the Party as "Thought". Importantly, it underscores that under Xi Jinping China and the CCP have entered a "new era" and credits only Mao and Deng as having made comparable contributions. Xi Jinping's loyalists had in 2013 begun stating that 'under Xi China had embarked on a new thirty-year era like those of Mao and Deng before him!')