Beijing: The leader of the Chinese Communist Party and the nation’s President, Xi Jinping, said there is no force that can stop China forging ahead, before inspecting a grand military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the party’s rule.
At least 12 of the nuclear DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles, never seen in public before, were mounted on trucks painted in camouflage markings.
But unless they had a rare ticket for Tiananmen Square, Beijing residents were confined to their lounge rooms as streets closed and the city became a stage for the television spectacle.
Xi, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, said in his speech that when founding party leader Mao Zedong stood in the same place 70 years earlier it was the end of “100 years of humiliation and misery” for Chinese people.
“Today socialist China is standing with the rest of the world and there is no force that can shake the foundation of this brave nation, there is no force that can stop the Chinese people and nation from forging ahead.”
Before the military parade started Xi drove in an open-top Hongqi limousine to inspect the troops, calling out “Comrades work hard!”
The J-20 supersonic stealth fighters also flew by, among 12 air echelons and 160 aircraft. In the first military parade in 1949, only 70 planes could be found so they had been ordered to fly past twice.