China showcases arms, ambitions Hong Kong tense after policeman shoots protester
MARKING 70 YEARS Beijing hosts huge parade; Xi says ‘no force can shake’ China’s foundation
BEIJING: China on Tuesday brought out its big guns and even bigger nuclear missiles to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the country under Communist rule in a massive military parade where President Xi Jinping said no “force can shake the status of this great nation”.
Xi, who is also the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) general secretary, was flanked by past party heads Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin as he delivered the speech from a rostrum over the Tiananmen Square.
He oversaw the parade comprising 15,000 personnel drawn from across the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and a display of weapons including the unveiling of the DF-41 intercontinental nuclear missile, with a range of 12000-14000km, and hypersonic drones.
China also unveiled a stealth attack drone, the latest bomber, H-6N with refuelling capacity and the DF-17 ballistic missile, which is said to of hypersonic speed with high penetration capability.
“There is no force that can shake the foundation of this great nation,” Xi said, adding, “No force that can stop the Chinese people and the Chinese nation forging ahead”.
Xi delivered the speech from the same place where the iconic leader Mao Zedong did in 1949.
Xi said China “must adhere” to the “one country, two systems” policy governing Hong Kong and “maintain the long-term prosperity and stability” of the city.
After delivering his speech at the parade on Tuesday, Xi boarded a black open-roof limousine to review the PLA formations. HONGKONG: Hong Kong police shot a pro-democracy protestor in the chest on Tuesday as violent clashes erupted across the city hours after China held a massive military parade in Beijing to celebrate 70 years of Communist Party rule.
It was the first such injury from a live round in nearly four months of increasingly violent protests and threatened to strip the spotlight from China’s carefully-choreographed birthday party, designed to underscore its status as a global superpower.
While President Xi Jinping took salutes from some 15,000 troops in the capital, pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong threw eggs at his portrait, with tens of thousands of people defying police orders to disperse.
Running battles raged for hours across multiple locations, with some hardcore protesters hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails, while police responded for the most part with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon.
But in one area north of the skyscraper district, a police officer unloaded his weapon at close range into a young man, video footage showed.
“An officer discharged his firearm after coming under attack and a protester was struck in the chest in Tsuen Wan district today,” a police source said, requesting anonymity.
The wounded protester received initial first aid from officers before paramedics arrived and took him to hospital, the source added.
Many of the fights in the city were especially fierce with police in one district having corrosive liquid thrown at them and officers in another area retreating into a town hall from projectilethrowing crowds.
Burning barricades sent a pall of black smoke over the city, a regional hub for some of the world’s biggest banks.
The violence cast a shadow over the lavish parade in Beijing where tanks and new nuclear missiles paraded down the Avenue of Eternal Peace.