From Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping: 100 years of communism in China

For China's Communist Party, celebrating its 100th birthday on Thursday is not just about glorifying its past. It's also about cementing its future and that of its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The communists have ruled China single-handedly for more than 70 years since Mao Zedong led them to power in 1949.

This week's celebrations of the centenary will highlight China's rise in recent decades and glorify its early days of struggle, while glossing over the Cultural Revolution and other disastrous polices of the middle decades from the 1950s to the 1970s.

After Mao's death in 1976, China started a sharp turn under then-leader Deng Xiaoping, embracing a market economy that has transformed what was a poor country into an economic superpower.

Jiang Zemin came to power in 1989 after the military's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

He's remembered for having presided over a four-fold expansion of the economy in the 1990s while reining in civil liberties, including imposing a crackdown on followers of the Falun Gong, an outlawed spiritual movement.

Jiang's rule was followed in 2002 by former engineer Hu Jintao, who led the nuclear-armed Asian giant for 10 years.

Hu, in turn, was followed by China's current leader, Xi Jinping.