No one can stop us: Chinese President Xi’s show of military might
Xi Jinping declared ‘no one can stop progress of the Chinese’ at the 70th anniversary of communist rule.
President Xi Jinping declared that “no one can stop the progress of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation” as Beijing celebrated 70 years of communist government on Tuesday, rolling out its latest state-of-the-art weapons and showcasing the country’s economic development.
In a highly orchestrated show of strength to the rest of the world, the three-hour parade featured Beijing’s latest weaponry — the Dongfeng 41 intercontinental ballistic missile that can easily reach the US and Australia and the DF-17 short- to medium-range missile — as well as its latest drones, fighter planes, helicopters and early warning radars.
It was also a show of China’s economic success and apparent national unity, achieved under the constant guidance of the Communist Party, highlighting the fact that not only had the country stood up as a nation (a reference to founder Mao Zedong), but it had shaken off the “bullying” of the past by foreigners.
Wearing a dark grey Mao suit, in contrast to the business suits of other leaders sitting in the balcony of the Forbidden City, including 93-year-old former president Jiang Zemin, Mr Xi said “the Chinese nation had embarked on a magnificent road to realise the great rejuvenation”.
“There is no force that can shake the foundation of this great nation,” he said.
China had come a long way over the past 70 years, he told the thousands of flag-waving people sitting on Tiananmen Square and along Changan Avenue, standing in the very spot that chairman Mao stood 70 years earlier to declare the birth of communist China. Today, Mr Xi said, “socialist China stands proudly in the east of the world” and “China’s tomorrow will be even better”.
The parade comes at a time when China has been under sustained attack for more than a year by the administration of US President Donald Trump and has faced months of protests in its special administrative region of Hong Kong, where police on Tuesday shot in the chest a protester who was attacking them with a rod.
Mr Xi ignored their protests, declaring that China was determined to “adhere to the principle of peaceful reunification” and “one country, two systems” and eventually complete the integration of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan under the administration of “the motherland”.
Hong Kong’s embattled leader, Carrie Lam, sat in the crowd, flashing a rare smile as the city’s float came along amid a parade of colourful floats from all the provinces of China.
The celebrations began with a raising of the Chinese flag in Tiananmen Square and a salute by 56 cannons that fired 70 times — one for each year of communist China.
After his speech, Mr Xi stood in the back of a black limousine and was driven along Changan Avenue and back to inspect the troops and pay tribute to three Chinese flags: the Communist Party flag, the national flag and the military flag.
References to the overriding role of the party were laced through his speech, with Mr Xi telling his audience that “we must uphold the leadership of the Communist Party”, and throughout the celebrations.
His troop inspection was followed by a parade of 15,000 officers of the People’s Liberation Army marching in smart dark green and white uniforms in lock step, followed by a procession of military equipment including tanks, drones and missiles and a fly-past of helicopters and fighter jets … all set against the backdrop of the modern office buildings that line the avenue.
While officials who briefed on the parade beforehand were at pains to stress that it would not be a show of “muscle”, and was not aimed at any other country, there was no doubt China was using the parade to signal that it had arrived as a military power.
It included 350 female soldiers and a group of Chinese UN peacekeepers wearing light-blue berets.
Mr Xi stressed the need for China, whose economy has been under stress from Mr Trump’s trade war and his threat of decoupling the US economy, to “unite more closely” so it could “work hard for the rejuvenation of the Chinese dream”.
The military parade was followed by a second parade of floats celebrating China’s progress — featuring giant pictures of former leaders from Mao to Mr Jiang, Hu Jintao and then Mr Xi himself.
It also included celebrations of economic development including floats highlighting China’s free-trade and special economic zones, its hosting of the 2008 Olympics and its future hosting of the 2022 winter Games, its high-speed rail, its Long March space rockets and a super computer.
Another celebrated Mr Xi’s Belt and Road Infrastructure initiative, which is supported by more than 120 countries and organisations. “The world needs China for its future prosperity,” a commentator on China’s English-language television, CGTN, said as the float passed by.
Other aspects of Mr Xi’s administration were celebrated, including a float highlighting his anti-corruption drive and another showing the commitment to tackling pollution and working towards a sustainable environment.
Yet another showed China as a giant white ship sailing across a blue ocean with the Chinese Communist Party at the helm.
The last float was the host city’s, with a procession of 5000 people from Beijing dressed in red and singing “long live the motherland”.
The event ended with the release of 70,000 balloons into the Beijing sky, finally allowing the crowd, which had been ready for hours beforehand and had to sit through almost three hours of the parade, to go home and start their week-long holiday.
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