Ten great years

Ten years have passed since the founding of the great People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949 Ten years are but a moment in the course of man's historical development. But to the Chinese people, who in the past have gone through all kinds of tribulations and hardships, their experiences during these ten years have created an epic of world-shaking importance for ever worthy of being re called. They are the Chinese people's ten years of rebirth; they are the Chinese people's ten years of progress at flying speed in economy and culture. During this short period the Chinese people, under the brilliant leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman Mao Tse-tung, with the help of the great Soviet Union and other fraternal socialist countries, and with the help and sympathy of the peace-loving peoples of the whole world, have worked with determination, diligence and great revolutionary drive. Over the wide expanse of their motherland, which was "poor and blank," they have written the newest and most beautiful words and printed the newest and most beautiful pictures where none existed before.

Ten years ago, just before the birth of the Chinese People's Republic, Chairman Mao Tse-tung made this prediction:

The Chinese people will see that as soon as China's des tiny is in their own hands, China, like the sun rising in the east, will radiate her own brilliant light over the earth, the mud and dirt left by the reactionary government will quickly be washed out, the wounds of war will be healed and a new, strong people's democratic republic of China will be founded both in name and in fact.