Commitment to peace, not to conflicts
China’s National Day military parade was a showcase of defense sector accomplishments
Five-year and 10-year anniversaries have always been of great importance to the Chinese people. Little wonder, then, that a grand parade was held on Oct 1 to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The parade — the biggest ever according to the organizers — apart from highlighting China’s achievements in other fields, also showcased some new advanced weapons for the first time.
As is the international practice, a parade acts as a platform for a country to demonstrate its military strength, which could act as deterrence to belligerent foreign powers and reassurance to the people that the country can defend itself against any attacks.
This parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the PRC was the first big parade since China entered the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In a way, it showcased the achievements of the past 10 years in the defense and military sector as well as presenting the aspirations for the new era.
With 59 formations and a joint military band, about 15,000 people, 160 aircraft and 580 pieces of weaponry and equipment, the parade was the largest in scale and richest in substance. That is why people were looking forward to it.
The parade also showcased the achievements of the military reforms, particularly the military command system reform, and the optimization of size, structure and force composition, apart from highlighting the high level of the military’s informatization and its capability in real combat.
The organizers used an innovative design and form, complete with historical elements, to create a ceremonial atmosphere for the parade, which presented China’s military construction through soldier, armament and aircraft formations.
The soldier formations reflected the transformation of the command system and composition of the forces. Not only did the main military branches — the People’s Liberation Army Ground Force, PLA Navy, PLA Air Force, PLA Rocket Force and People’s Armed Police Force — participate in the parade, but also the
newly established PLA Strategic Support Force and PLA Joint Logistic Support Force.
The armament formations showcased the achievements of independent innovation, and the research and development of the military science and technology industry. Accordingly, self-developed in-service weapons and those with advanced combat capabilities were in focus, and many of these were on show for the first time, including airborne early warning and control, new radars, unmanned aerial vehicles and communications satellites.
As for the aircraft formations, these reflected China’s systematic air combat capabilities.
Other formations were equipped with new combat weapons instead of traditional weapons, with more new armed police and high-tech and special forces taking the place of some PLA Ground Force formations.
The National Day military parade witnessed the debut of PLA forces since their comprehensive reforms according to the general principle of “the Central Military Commission exercising overall leadership, the Theater Commands responsible for military operations, and the services focusing on developing capabilities”.
The Oct 1 parade showed the steady progress China has made in building a world-class military — following the parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) on Sept 3, 2015, the parade at the Zhurihe Training Base in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region on July 30, 2017, and the PLA Navy parade on April 23, 2019. Ahead of this event, some claimed the military parade was a “waste of money” or a “show of military muscle to the world”. But it was held based on the principle of reasonable expenditure and to inspire both the PLA and the Chinese people to endeavor to achieve the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. To those in other countries who speculated as to the parade’s purpose, suffice to say there is nothing untoward in the display of China’s military power, as it is not intended as a threat to any country.
A country as vast as China needs a strong military in order to safeguard its territorial integrity and national interests. And as Chinese leaders have emphasized on many occasions, China’s rise will be peaceful because it is committed to building a community with a shared future for mankind.
The author is a researcher at the National Defense University of the People’s Liberation Army. The views do not necessarily represent those of China Daily.