President Xi Jinping struck a defiant tone in a speech marking the Communist Party’s 100-year anniversary, calling China’s quest to gain control of Taiwan a “historic mission” and warning the country’s adversaries to avoid standing in the way of his government.

In a nationwide address from above the portrait of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square, Xi hailed the party’s successes, saying China wanted to promote peace in the world and was open to “constructive criticism.” Yet he quickly warned that the country would no longer listen to “sanctimonious preaching” and that “the time when the Chinese nation could be bullied and abused by others was gone forever.”

Xi, 68, called the move to unify China and Taiwan an “unshakable commitment” and vowed “resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt toward ‘Taiwan independence.’” Although the language is similar to what Xi has said before, the comments recommit him to an assertive path as calls grow in the U.S., Japan and elsewhere to boost support the democratic government in Taipei.

The CSI 300 Index of stocks fluctuated, last trading up 0.3% after earlier falling 0.6%. The benchmark measure is eking out a small gain this year, having subsided from a peak in February amid officials’ efforts to cool speculation and prevent markets from overheating. The onshore yuan fell 0.13% to trade at 6.4660 per dollar.

“The Chinese people will never allow any foreign forces to bully, coerce and enslave us,” Xi, wearing a gray Mao-style suit, said to rousing applause before a crowd of some 70,000 party faithful, soldiers and foreign observers. “Whoever attempts to do that, will surely break their heads on the steel Great Wall built with the blood and flesh of 1.4 billion of Chinese people.”

​While Xi’s remarks appeared aimed at building nationalist support as the party enters a period of slower growth, the tone is likely to further alarm other countries that have clashed with China. Negative views of China remain near record highs across the developed world, according to a Pew Research Center survey released hours earlier. In 14 of the 17 advanced economies polled, at least 70% said they had no confidence in Xi’s ability to do the right thing in world affairs.

“The number of applause lines here that were provoked by calls to nationalism, strength, sovereignty, was really, really quite striking,” Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Bloomberg Television. “It’s the next 10 years that the party needs to be worried about in terms of resiliency. We’ve never had since the death of Mao the Communist Party run by essentially an autocrat unconstrained by elite politics.”

Most of Xi’s speech focused on the accomplishments of the Communist Party in the past 100 years, including paying respect to former leaders Mao and Deng Xiaoping. He declared that China had built a “moderately prosperous society,” marking the completion of a long-held party goal after the economy ballooned to become the world’s second-largest behind the U.S.

Xi continued his efforts to cast himself as the “people’s leader” before a party congress next year in which the “princeling” son of a former vice premier was expected to seek a third five-year term. Xi mentioned the “people” 86 times in the 65-minute speech, and he said the party served no privileged groups or special interests.

The comments come after his government has maneuvered to rein in large tech companies like
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. “As we fought to consolidate our leadership over the country, we have in fact been fighting to earn the people’s support,” Xi said.

Xi portrayed his party of more than 95 million people as indispensable to restoring the Asian nation to a position of global strength after a “century of humiliation” due to imperial invasions and internal strife. “Through tenacious struggle, the party and the Chinese people showed the world that the Chinese people have stood up, and that the time when the Chinese nation could be bullied and abused by others was gone forever,” he said.

The ceremony was one of several choreographed events to mark the party’s founding in 1921 by Mao and a handful of other revolutionaries. Minutes before Xi started speaking, fighter jets streaked through the sky above the square, and Xi reviewed members of the armed forces in dress uniform as they marched past.

During his remarks, Xi pledged to speed up modernization of the armed forces, although he said the party intends promote peace and some 100,000 doves were released after he finished speaking. “We have never bullied the people of any other country and we never will,” Xi said.

While Xi’s grip over domestic politics is stronger than ever, China’s rise is facing increasing resistance from the U.S. and its allies who accuse the president of leading it down a more confrontational and authoritarian path.

“Xi used the speech to show that the CCP has wide support from the public and enjoys high-level popularity among Chinese people, which in turn shows that he himself has the support and popularity,” said Deng Yuwen, a former editor at the party’s Study Times journal. “Xi has also used the speech to send a stern warning to the U.S. and the West, and that’s when the audience responded most enthusiastically.”

— With assistance by Colum Murphy, Lucille Liu, and Jing Li

(Updates with market reaction in fourth paragraph.)