China has celebrated the 60th anniversary of Communist rule with a huge military parade featuring hundreds of thousands of soldiers marching in lockstep, tanks, missiles and fighter jets. The Communist Party was sending an important message to the world -- and to the Chinese population. The new China looked a lot like the old China on Thursday. The Communist Party celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic with a massive military display and a parade of more than 200,000 flag-waving people. It's a nation marching in lockstep into the future. Endless rows of students, railroad workers and nurses marched along the Avenue of Eternal Peace, after the military had passed. They held banners featuring slogans like: "The whole country builds prosperity."
China has celebrated the 60th anniversary of Communist rule with a huge military parade featuring hundreds of thousands of soldiers marching in lockstep, tanks, missiles and fighter jets. The Communist Party was sending an important message to the world -- and to the Chinese population.
The new China looked a lot like the old China on Thursday. The Communist Party celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic with a massive military display and a parade of more than 200,000 flag-waving people.
It's a nation marching in lockstep into the future. Endless rows of students, railroad workers and nurses marched along the Avenue of Eternal Peace, after the military had passed. They held banners featuring slogans like: "The whole country builds prosperity."
Editor's note: Oct. 1 is the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. To mark the occasion we have two dispatches from two very different corners of China -- Tibet and Hong Kong. And from Beijing, Kathleen E. McLaughlin looks at the event's unique security arrangements. HONG KONG, China -- One month ago, Chinese journalists flocked to cover renewed violence in Xinjiang province, as ethnic Chinese blamed the Uighur minority for a rash of mysterious hypodermic-needle attacks. China's media is among the most restricted in the world, so it wasn't entirely surprising when reports emerged that police had beaten and detained three of the bolder television journalists, accusing them of inciting inter-ethnic violence. Except, this trio hailed from Hong Kong, the one beacon of democracy in all of China. So news of their treatment struck a nerve in a territory that London returned to China 12 years ago, after 150 years of British rule. Hundreds of Hong Kong journalists took to the streets to demand not only an apology from the Chinese authorities, but even an investigation of the event.
Editor's note: Oct. 1 is the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. To mark the occasion we have two dispatches from two very different corners of China -- Tibet and Hong Kong. And from Beijing, Kathleen E. McLaughlin looks at the event's unique security arrangements.
HONG KONG, China -- One month ago, Chinese journalists flocked to cover renewed violence in Xinjiang province, as ethnic Chinese blamed the Uighur minority for a rash of mysterious hypodermic-needle attacks.
China's media is among the most restricted in the world, so it wasn't entirely surprising when reports emerged that police had beaten and detained three of the bolder television journalists, accusing them of inciting inter-ethnic violence.
Except, this trio hailed from Hong Kong, the one beacon of democracy in all of China. So news of their treatment struck a nerve in a territory that London returned to China 12 years ago, after 150 years of British rule. Hundreds of Hong Kong journalists took to the streets to demand not only an apology from the Chinese authorities, but even an investigation of the event.
China celebrated the 60th anniversary of Communist Party rule underlining its emergence as one of the world's great powers with a huge show of its national spirit and military strength. Underneath a bright blue sky, engineered by Beijing's scientists, president Hu Jintao told the crowds in Tiananmen Square that "a socialist China that faces the future is standing tall and firm in the East". Repeating Chairman Mao's speech on the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Mr Hu added: "The Chinese people have stood up!"
Underneath a bright blue sky, engineered by Beijing's scientists, president Hu Jintao told the crowds in Tiananmen Square that "a socialist China that faces the future is standing tall and firm in the East".
Repeating Chairman Mao's speech on the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Mr Hu added: "The Chinese people have stood up!"
Mao must have loved it.
Have not been able to find any pix on the net yet, but it can't be long.
Having said that, the night-time show was pretty amazing. No one does colossal-scale pageantry like the Chinese. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
Through the SPIEGEL link above you can access more pictures.
China formally kicked off its mass celebrations of 60 years of communist rule with a 60-gun salute that rung out across Beijing's historic Tiananmen Square earlier today. Hundreds of thousands of participants marched past Tiananmen Square in costume or uniform, with floats and dancers mingling with soldiers and military hardware. Collected here are photographs of the once-in-a-decade National Day parade in Beijing, and of others commemorating the anniversary elsewhere.
it was a hyper-phallic circle jerk
Some Chinese guy:
"a socialist China that faces the future is standing tall and firm in the East". Repeating Chairman Mao's speech on the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Mr Hu added: "The Chinese people have stood up!"
"a socialist China that faces the future is standing tall and firm in the East".
