http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26152094-2703,00.html
Chinese communists paint town red for 60th anniversary October 02, 2009 Article from: The Australian AFTER a week of dreadful smog and gloom, the Chinese capital was blessed with beauty. The sun shone in a stunning clear blue sky, flags fluttered in the light breeze and the implacable Chinese President Hu Jintao reviewed 8000 immaculately drilled troops through a Tiananmen Square awash in red and yellow and down the length of Beijing's magnificent Chang'an Avenue. In Beijing, at least, everything was right with the world as China's Communist Party celebrated its 60 years in power. For Mr Hu in a black Mao jacket, standing ramrod stiff through the sunroof of a black limousine as he reviewed the troops following a 60-gun salute, it was perhaps the pinnacle of a long career, in his seventh year at the head of China's ruling Politburo. Taking the stage on the parapet of the Forbidden City, Mr Hu promised peace, harmony and a united China. China has "infinitely bright prospects", he said. "The development and progress of New China over the past 60 years fully proved that only socialism can save China and only reform and opening up can ensure the development of China, socialism and Marxism." The two-hour parade featured the latest in Chinese defence hardware and thousands of troops and civilian standard bearers. It's 60 years since Mao Zedong - whose embalmed body remains in state at the edge of Tiananmen Square - seized power in a bloody civil war, ending a century of turmoil, only to usher in 30 years of experimental socialist government on a scale never seen before or since. The devastating famine of the 1950s was followed by the murderous Cultural Revolution, before Mao's death ushered in China's new era of booming semi-capitalist growth under Deng Xiaoping. Yet China's Communist Party has succeeded where Russia and its satellite states failed in maintaining an ever-morphing form of socialism to govern its people. A total of 52 types of new weapon systems, including China's newest model of intercontinental nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, were on display. Other cutting-edge weaponry includes China's new generation of tanks, radar, airborne early warning and control aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and satellite communication devices. "Some types of equipment were displayed in previous military parades, but what is to be shown in this parade are their upgraded models," parade director Lieutenant General Fang Fenghui said. The parade involved more than 8000 servicemen and women, nearly 500 tanks, missiles and other military vehicles and 151 warplanes. Party leaders including former leader Jiang Zemin and heir apparent Xi Jinping watched on, among 30,000 invited guests including Australia's ambassador to China, Geoff Raby. On Wednesday night, the country's top leaders gathered in the Great Hall of the People to hear Premier Wen Jiabao say the world's economic development faced the most severe challenge since the Great Depression and admit China's economy had also been seriously hit by the global economic crisis. China's double-digit growth had slowed to 8 per cent. Mr Wen pledged to maintain "the sustainability and stability of the country's macroeconomic policy to achieve steady and rapideconomic development and contribute to global economic recovery". He urged the people to be sober-minded and proceed with confidence in driving the country's development. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
