Versions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) history are published every 10 years with the previous volumes published in 1991, 2001, 2011 and now the latest version titled “Brief History of the Chinese Communist Party,” on April 13, 2021. The book has been published by mainland authorities as the most updated version of the party’s history to mark its centenary this year. It is listed as a designated resource for teaching the Communist Party’s history in schools. Analysing the latest version, Apple Daily (April 13) said it has put a 'more hawkish and nationalistic touch on major events, including foreign sanctions and Hong Kong’s handover, compared with an older version'. It said the 'authors have concentrated on how the party stepped up efforts to deal with sanctions imposed on China by Western countries following the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989'. Apple Daily said 'Instead of focusing on former leader Deng Xiaoping’s low-profile diplomacy approach, as in the older edition, the latest version recalled Deng’s hawkish remarks during a meeting with former U.S. president Richard Nixon in November 1989'. At that time Deng Xiaoping told Nixon that the Chinese people would “never beg for the cancellation of the sanctions” even if they dragged on for 100 years. It noted that the U.S. and Europe imposed an arms embargo on China for its bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing on June 4, 1989. Unlike the 2010 edition which, Apple Daily pointed out, said Hong Kong enjoyed a high degree of autonomy and kept its previous social and economic systems unchanged under the “one country, two systems” principle, the new book described the handover as a “brilliant and great achievement in the history of the Chinese race,” and as an event that put Hong Kong under China’s national governing machine to share an inseparable path of development'. Apple Daily underlined that  'The new book has also significantly downsized coverage of the Cultural Revolution, a decade of national turmoil starting 1966, to one page of sketchy descriptions instead of an entire 11,000-word chapter in the old edition. While the old version held Mao Zedong responsible for initiating the movement, which became a “serious disaster” for the Chinese people, the latest edition does not say Mao was at fault. Instead, it says Mao “had been exploring ways in his incessant fight against corruption, special privileges and bureaucratism within the party and government ... Many of his correct ideas for building socialism were not thoroughly implemented, leading to internal turmoil.”

(Comment: The new version of CCP's history brought out this year under Xi Jinping reflects the official thinking of the Party under Xi Jinping and implicitly endorses Xi Jinping's policies.)