The Communist Party's 90th anniversary was celebrated today. In a 90-minute nationally televised speech, the Chinese President Hu Jintao said that its ability to adapt made China affluent and powerful and that the party must fight corruption to retain public support and continue its uncontested rule.

He glossed over the radical campaigns and policies that led to tens of millions of deaths in the first decades of communist rule. But he said the party endured because it learned from its mistakes.

''In some historical periods, we once made mistakes and even suffered severe setbacks, the root cause of which was that our guiding thought then was divorced from China's reality. Our party managed to correct the mistakes by the strength of itself and the people, rose up amid the setbacks and continued to go forward victoriously,'' Hu told the several thousand party stalwarts inside the Great Hall of the People.

Unlike recent years when party anniversaries were largely for party members, this year's celebrations have sought to include and excite the public. Events have included a star-studded feature film about the party's founding, a torrent of documentaries and serialized historic dramas on television and mass sing-a-longs of ''red'' songs.

The purpose is to inspire patriotism and loyalty to the party and reinforce a now well-practiced narrative: that after a century of civil war, dynastic collapse and foreign invasion, the Communist Party has returned China to greatness and restored its rightful place as a world leader.