|
BBC
China marks Communist anniversary
China is staging mass celebrations to mark 60 years since the Communist Party came to power.
Vast lines of tanks, soldiers and missile launchers are being paraded through the capital Beijing.
President Hu Jintao has appeared on the rostrum at Tiananmen Square ina black Mao-style tunic, seen by analysts as a symbol of his control ofthe military.
The military parade, expected to show previously unseen missiletechnology, followed a drive-by inspection of the armed forces and aspeech by President Hu which lauded China's progress.
TIMES
China stages picture-perfect 60th anniversary gala
China’s Communist Party pulled off a picture-perfect parade to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its rule, stamping its authority and instilling pride among its people.
The highlight of the day was the military parade, a demonstration of the strides China is making in modernising its army since the last similar occasion 10 years ago.
State media boasted of the latest hardware that was on display as 52 new-generation weapons systems trundled through the centre of Beijing and Tiananmen Square along with goose-stepping troops from the People’s Liberation Army.
President Hu opened the proceedings in traditional fashion by reviewing the troops and tanks lined up along the Avenue of Eternal Peace that bisects Beijing. Standing in an open-top bespoke, domestically made Red Flag limousine, he shouted to the pride of the PLA: “Hello Comrades” and, “Comrades, you have worked hard!” They yelled back: “Hello Chairman” and, “Serve the People.”
Guardian
The people's republic rising at 60
Today, 1 October, the People's Republic of China (PRC) celebrates its 60th birthday.
This is a good moment to evaluate what kind of country China hasbecome. One might argue, as Churchill did of Russia, that it is "ariddle wrapped up in mystery, inside an enigma". The enigma is theCommunist party and its grip on power, and the mystery is whether anauthoritarian power can embrace capitalism without sowing the seeds ofits own demise.
If there are many unknowns about China, perhaps the place to start iswith what we do know. The PRC is a global power. It is a permanentmember of the UN security council and plays an increasingly importantrole in the determination of international security concerns. FromNorth Korea to Iran, China is a pivotal power in terms of multilateralmeasures to limit nuclear proliferation.
Churchill's famous quotation about Russia implied that understandingthe national interest was more predictable than trying to understandthe particular traits and habits of a foreign culture. On this he waswrong. Getting to grips with the mystery of authoritarian capitalism,and the enigma of the struggle for status, is more likely to yieldresults in the case of China than relying on the riddle of the nationalinterest.
TIME
China at 60: The Road to Prosperity
Sixty years ago Mao Zedong stood before a sea of people atop TiananmenGate proclaiming, in his high-pitched Hunan dialect, the founding ofthe People's Republic of China and that the "Chinese people have stoodup!" The moment was marked with pride and hope. The communists' victoryhad vanquished the Nationalist regime, withstood the vicious onslaughtof the Japanese invasion and overturned the century of foreignencroachment on China's territory. Moreover, Mao and the ChineseCommunist Party (CCP) came to power without significant externalsupport — theirs was largely a homegrown revolution.
I then witnessed the dramatic blossoming of personal freedoms andeconomic growth in the 1980s, punctuated by periodic countercampaignslaunched by neo-Maoists in the leadership. One could literally feel andsee Chinese society come alive after its long Maoist trauma, only tohave people quickly recoil when the conservatives in the leadershipreasserted themselves. This seesaw pattern persisted throughout thedecade, culminating in the dramatic Tiananmen demonstrations and theirsuppression in June 1989.
Thus, when considering the totality of six decades, the record of thePRC is decidedly mixed. While its achievements have been momentous, soare the contrasts and contradictions exposed by those very sameachievements. In many sectors, each reform breeds new problems andchallenges. China has come a long way, but it still has a long way togo.
Newsweek
Show Float
Theenormous military parade marking China's 60th anniversary isn't aboutimpressing the world—it's about impressing the Chinese themselves.
Fifty-six military formations, with 8,000 participants, are slated tobe followed by a kinder, gentler civilians' parade of another 180,000people traveling on floats and by foot.
But the primary audience for this spectacle is not the internationalpress. The real reason for all the pomp and circumstance is to speakdirectly to the Chinese. And it doesn't require a semiologist tointerpret. Beijing's leadership is trying to say something surprisinglysimple: "You are safe, because China is strong." The parade'sgoose-stepping soldiers and unprecedented display of military hardwarewill undoubtedly look like muscle-flexing triumphalism to many Westernobservers. Yet the regime's underlying mood is not aggression; it'sinsecurity.
TOWNHALL
China's 60th anniversary stirs pride, also unease
China celebrated its rise to a world power over 60 years ofCommunist rule Thursday, staging its biggest-ever parade of militaryhardware with over 100,000 marching masses in a display that stirredpatriotism and some unease.
Police blocked off a wide areaaround central Beijing's Tiananmen Square for the 60th anniversary ofthe People's Republic. People were told to stay away and watch theevents on television, though that did not dampen a festive air asresidents gathered in homes and alleys.
President Hu Jintao, dressed in a gray Mao tunic instead of thebusiness suit he usually wears, reviewed the thousands of troops andhundreds of tanks and other weaponry, shouting "Hello, comrades" whileriding in an open-top, domestically made Red Flag limousine.
The feel-good, if heavily script ed moment tapped into Chinese pridesurrounding the country's turnaround from the war-battered,impoverished state the communists took over on Oct. 1, 1949 to thedynamic, third-largest world economy of today.
"How many hundreds of millions are being spent on the National Daytroop review? Can you tell the taxpayers?" prolific blogger Li Huizhi,a small businessman in southern Guangzhou city, wrote on his popularblog Sunday. "Aren't the possibly tens of billions in money spentperhaps a bit of a disservice to the people? Because in today's China,there are countless places more in need of this money." |
|