As officials across China raise their goblets in toasts to the country’s 57th National Day, celebrated on October 1, what better time to take a realistic view, one unmarred by propaganda?

The National Day marks the founding of the People’s Republic of China. That’s the huge nation with its capital in Beijing, not the smaller one in Taiwan.

Alas, the arrival of National Day signifies another year of rule by the autocratic Chinese Communist Party. Since 1949, China’s leaders have earned notoriety for dubious achievements like the Great Leap Forward circa 1958, the Cultural Revolution launched in 1966 and the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.

On the positive side, Beijing likes to stress the economy’s rapid and orderly growth since 1978. That’s fine, except that China’s hardworking and amibitious people might have achieved much more, minus political rigor mortus.

Fifty-seven years without free-flowing information, without adequate freedom of association, without real labor unions, without a fair legal system, without allowing people on the streets a meaningful say in choosing their national leaders. These are reasons to celebrate?

Fortunately, a time will come when the Chinese Communist Party no longer dominates. When that new era arrives, so will more joyous and meaningful National Days.

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