China Mao Zedong Symposium

China Central Television (CCTV) - Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday that the Communist Party of China(CPC) will hold high the banner of Mao Zedong Thought "forever" in pursuing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Xi said Mao, who was the principal founder of the CPC, the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the People's Republic of China, was a great proletarian revolutionary, strategist and theorist.

Mao is a great figure who changed the face of the nation and led the Chinese people to a new destiny, said Xi.

Revolutionary leaders are not gods, but human beings, Xi said.

He said that people should not worship these leaders like gods or refuse to allow people to point out and correct their errors just because they are great and that people should not totally repudiate them and erase their historical feats just because they made mistakes.

Thursday's symposium at the Great Hall of the People was chaired by Liu Yunshan and attended by Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli, all of whom were members of the CPC Politburo Standing Committee.

Before the symposium, the seven top leaders paid tribute to Mao's statue at Tian'anmen Square.

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