Mao Zedong uttered these words many decades ago: “Every communist must grasp the truth, political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the party.” But Mao would have looked up from hell with pride on Tuesday. On the 70th anniversary of the Communist China he founded, political power still prevails through the party’s gun. It is a truth we saw proven by the tanks parading through Tiananmen Square, and a truth proven by an 18-year-old Hongkonger shot at point-blank range.

He’ll never admit it explicitly, but Xi Jinping wants us to know these joined truths. He wants all to know that the party remains supreme, and that all those who oppose it must ultimately be cowed or crushed.