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China Shows Global Military Ambition at Parade Marking 70 Years of Communist Rule

China Shows Global Military Ambition  at Parade Marking 70 Years of Communist Rule

BEIJING - China’s Communist Party marked 70 years in power Tuesday with a military parade showcasing the country’s global ambitions and advancements in weapons technology.
Trucks carrying nuclear missiles designed to evade U.S. defenses, a supersonic attack drone and other products of a two-decade-old weapons development effort rolled through Beijing as soldiers marched past President Xi Jinping and other leaders on Tiananmen Square. Fighter jets flew over spectators who waved Chinese flags.
The display highlighted Beijing’s ambition for strategic influence to match its status as the second-largest global economy, even as Xi’s government suppresses dissent that illustrates the tensions between a closed, one-party dictatorship and a rapidly evolving society.
Members of a Chinese military honor guard march during the the celebration to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China in Beijing, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Members of a Chinese military honor guard march during the the celebration to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China in Beijing, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Those strategic goals include displacing the United States as the Pacific region’s dominant power and enforcing potentially volatile claims to Taiwan, the South China Sea and other disputed territories.
“No force can stop the progress of the Chinese people,” said Xi, was joined on the Tiananmen rostrum by Premier Li Keqiang, former Presidents Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin and other party figures. Authorities said the event would include 15,000 troops, more than 160 aircraft and 580 pieces of military equipment.
The parade commemorated the Oct. 1, 1949, founding of the People’s Republic of China by then-leader Mao Zedong following a civil war with the Nationalist government, which retreated to Taiwan. China’s Communists are closing in on the 74-year record of the former Soviet Communist Party as the longest-ruling Marxist-Leninist party.
Chinese military personnel march during the parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China in Beijing, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Chinese military personnel march during the parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China in Beijing, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
The display of “high-quality weapons” is meant to show Beijing is on track to “rejuvenate China in the global arena,” Henry Boyd, a military analyst at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, told The Associated Press
“The message is, this is a great power to be taken seriously,” Boyd said. “It is not to be treated as an inferior.”
The Pentagon has identified China as the U.S.’s top geopolitical threat.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam attended the Beijing parade with a delegation of Hong Kong officials and dignitaries in a show of unity with the ruling party.
Xi, wearing a gray Mao jacket, rode in an open-topped limousine past dozens of rows of truck-mounted missiles, armored personnel carriers and other military gear.
Soldiers in helmets and combat gear shouted, “Hello, leader!” and “Serve the people!” Xi replied, “Hello, comrades.”
Supported by China’s economic boom, military spending has risen 400 percent over the past decade as Beijing tries to match the United States, Russia and Europe in weapons technology. Foreign analysts say China is, along with the United States, a leader in unmanned aircraft and is catching up in missiles and some other areas.
(Foxnews)