Xi presents medals to outstanding party members

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday presented the July 1 Medal, the highest honor within the country's authoritarian ruling Communist Party, to 29 recipients. China has been carrying out a series of events across the country this week to mark the centenary of the Communist Party and to herald its growing influence abroad.

Among Tuesday's honorees are Maimaitijiang Wumaier, a party official from China's far west Xinjiang region who was praised by state media for his work against religious extremist, and Zhang Guimei, a teacher who set up a free high school for girls from impoverished families in Yunnan Province.

Xi commended the recipients as "lively manifest" of the party's noble spirits. Xi also urged all Party members to adhere to Marxism and "always trust, love, and serve" the Party. China's Communist Party now boasts almost 92 million members, just over 6% of the country's population of 1.4 billion. The vast majority of government officials and leaders of state industry are party members, and the party leadership has been contrasting what it describes as social cohesion with the partisan divides apparent in the U.S. and other democracies.