Posted on 09/30/2009 9:00:14 PM PDT by myknowledge
BEIJING — China celebrated its rise to a world power over 60 years of Communist rule Thursday, staging its biggest-ever parade of military hardware with over a hundred thousand marching masses in a display that stirred patriotism — and some unease.
Police blocked off a wide area around central Beijing's Tiananmen Square for the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic. City residents were told to stay away and watch the events on television.
President Hu Jintao, dressed in a gray Mao tunic instead of the business suit he usually wears, reviewed the thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks and other weaponry, shouting "Hello, comrades" while riding in an open-top, domestically made Red Flag limousine.
During the two-hour-plus festivities, dozens of Chinese-made fighter jets were to stage a fly-over.
After the armaments, 60 floats celebrating last year's Beijing Olympics, China's manned space program and other symbols of progress rolled by as tens of thousands of students flipped colored cards in unison to make pictures.
The events were meant to underscore what the leadership calls the "revival of the great Chinese nation."
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Why do you think so? It's a form of nationalistic pride. And ego.
It’s a sign of insecurity. It’s the kind of thing I would expect in a 1984-type novel.
Do you think the US should parade nuclear missiles through Washington?
I asked, do you think the US should parade missiles through Washington?
“How about parading army troops and vehicles, warships along harbors and jet fighters and bombers in the sky on national holidays? Same insecurity meaning, I bet?”
It depends how it’s done. If it’s done like “here’s a huge ordinance that could blow stuff up” it’s gay, if it’s “here are our people, we honor them” or “here are some cool airplanes” it’s not gay.
This isn’t opinion, these are fundamentally true facts.
“it would be a sign of militarism”
Why would it be militaristic if the US did it, but not if India does it?
As you indicate by mentioning “goose-stepping”, it’s all about HOW it’s done. You can have military things like flypasts or ships with firehoses with sailors standing to attention if it’s done right.
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