The Art of the Party: The Liberation of Beiping

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Beijing, the capital city of China with a GDP of $558.5 billion in 2020, 13-thousand-fold increase from 71 years ago when it was still called Beiping.

Hard fighting was finally bringing the Civil War to an end in other parts of China.

For the capital city, the Communist Party of China sought a peaceful transition of power to preserve its thousand-year-old buildings and protect its two million citizens.

Nationalist forces called the Kuomintang, or KMT, controlled Beiping. Inside the city, undercover CPC members discovered KMT plans to withdraw from the city.

The Red Army surrounded the capital. Kuomintang Commander Fu Zuoyi had no option but to surrender.

On January 21, 1949, representatives from both CPC and KMT signed their names on the Peace Agreement of Beiping.

The PLA marked the handover with a grand parade on February 3. The milestone event was documented by Chinese Artist Ye Qianyu.

In his painting -- The Liberation of Beiping, he managed to capture all the details of the day, the signature buildings, the atmosphere, the red flags, and the faces of hundreds of people on the street.

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