Chinese leader Xi Jinping told roughly 800 officials that national revival cannot be halted, speaking at a Beijing banquet as the Communist Party marked the 1949 founding of the People’s Republic.

The dinner took place on the night of September 30 in the Great Hall of the People. Before dawn the next day more than 100,000 people gathered in Tiananmen Square for a flag-raising, while similar events were held nationwide, including in Tibet, East Turkistan, and over contested South China Sea features.

State outlets also highlighted the 90th anniversary of the Long March’s end, when about 4,000 of 100,000 troops survived a trek of more than 6,000 miles. Xi voiced pride in New China’s record and confidence in modernization, urging steady progress without spelling out economic or diplomatic measures.