Participants wave national and party flags as balloons are released at the end of the event marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China, on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, July 1. Reuters-Yonhap

China will not allow itself to be bullied and anyone who tries will face ''broken heads and bloodshed in front of the iron Great Wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people,'' President Xi Jinping said at a mass gathering Thursday to mark the centenary of the ruling Communist Party.

Wearing a grey buttoned-up suit of the type worn by Mao Zedong, Xi spoke from the balcony of Tiananmen Gate, emphasizing the party's role in bringing China to global prominence and saying it would never be divided from the people.

Xi, also head of the party and leader of the armed forces, also said China had restored order in Hong Kong following anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous city in 2019 and reiterated Beijing's determination to bring self-governing Taiwan under its control.

He received the biggest applause, however, when he described the party as the force that had restored China's dignity after taking power amid civil war in 1949.

Chinese President Xi Jinping waves next to Premier Li Keqiang and former President Hu Jintao at the end of the event marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China, on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, July 1. Reuters-Yonhap

''The Chinese people are a people with a strong since of pride and self-confidence,'' Xi said. ''We have never bullied, oppressed or enslaved the people of another nation, not in the past, during the present or in the future.''

''At the same time, the Chinese people will absolutely not allow any foreign force to bully, oppress or enslave us and anyone who attempts to do so will face broken heads and bloodshed in front of the iron Great Wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people,'' Xi said.

Xi did not say what those forces were, but China is enmeshed in a deepening rivalry with the United States for global power status and has clashed with India along their disputed border. China also claims unpopulated islands held by Japan and almost the entire South China Sea, and it threatens to invade Taiwan, with which the U.S. has boosted relations and military sales.

Xi said the party would retain absolute control over its military wing, the People's Liberation Army, which now has the world's second-largest annual budget after the U.S. armed forces and has been adding aircraft carriers and sophisticated new aircraft, showcased in a flyover at the start of the ceremony featuring a squadron of China's J-20 stealth fighters.

A man looks at China's national flags and Hong Kong's flags hanging above a street in the Tsim Sha Tsui district of Hong Kong, June 29. AFP-Yonhap

Events are being held across the country, including in Hong Kong, which is simultaneously holding commemorations of its 1997 handover from British to Chinese control.

China has cracked down hard on freedom of speech and political opposition in the territory, while rejecting all outside criticism and sanctions imposed on its leaders.