*Beijing: *
China marks 70 years of Communist rule next week, with a massive militaryparade in Beijing anchoring celebrations of its emergence as a globalsuperpower, despite a damaging year of trade tensions with the US andpro-democracy unrest in Hong Kong.
The anniversary is meant to showcase China’s extraordinary rise from theravages of war and famine to a modern, powerful nation state whose economicand military muscle is viewed by many with increasing concern.
This stunning transformation radically altered the social and physicallandscape as hundreds of millions of rural Chinese poured into boomingcities to power the “factory of the world” into the globe’s second largesteconomy.
Tuesday’s military procession across Tiananmen Square will showcase thearmy’s most advanced weaponry, including 160 aircraft, in a bid to drum uppatriotic fervour and support for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), withPresident Xi Jinping at the centre.
But the planned narrative has been disrupted by months of unrest in HongKong, a painful US trade war, international criticism of human rightsabuses against Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, and soaring food prices.
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Security has been ramped up ahead of the parade, with facial recognition,ID checks and searches for those entering Beijing by car, toy weapon salesbanned and flying kites forbidden.
Roads have closed on weekend evenings for tanks to roll through inrehearsal. Fighter planes have roared in formation overhead.
Hundreds of thousands of government workers and students have been marchingin practice, a participant telling the state-run Global Times they weregiven adult diapers as there was no time to take toilet breaks. -APP/AFP
