• Print
• E-Mail
• Feedback

10/01/2009

The new China looked a lot like the old China on Thursday. The Communist Party celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic with a massive military display and a parade of more than 200,000 flag-waving people.

It's a nation marching in lockstep into the future. Endless rows of students, railroad workers and nurses marched along the Avenue of Eternal Peace, after the military had passed. They held banners featuring slogans like: "The whole country builds prosperity."

Everyone paid homage to the Communist Party leadership, who were high up on a rostrum on the gate to the former Forbidden City. It was from there that Communist China's founding father Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic 60 years ago, after the long civil war.

Before the start of the impressive spectacle, state and party leader President Hu Jintao had welcomed the soldiers, wearing a black Mao suit and sitting in a limousine of the luxury Chinese brand Red Flag, license plate V-02009. Hu is commander-in-chief of the army, which is under the sole command of the Communist Party.

Inspired by Cold War Celebrations

"Comrades, you take heavy burdens upon yourselves," he shouted to the soldiers standing in rank and file in front of the luxury shops of the Oriental Plaza. They shouted back: "Supreme Leader, you take heavy burdens upon yourself."

Approximately 80,000 children in colorful costumes had been standing on the square since the early hours of the morning. They used their pompoms to form Chinese characters -- for example, the word "national day" -- at lighting speed.

Many observers in the stands were reminded of similar parades in North Korea or marches on Moscow's Red Square during Soviet times. In fact, the organizers had indeed taken inspiration from socialist celebrations from the good old days of the Cold War.

This was not the modern China, whose functionaries wear Armani suits and invest in international hedge funds. This was a deeply conservative China -- an impression that floats representing, for example, the Chinese space program, could not manage to dispell.

The Communist Party even revived the old personality cult: The parade included four massive portraits: the images were of Mao Zedong, the great economic reformer Deng Xiaoping, Hu's predecessor Jiang Zemin and one of Hu himself.

Out of Step with Modern China

While the celebrations were broadcast live on TV, uninvited onlookers were not welcome at the parade itself. Residents from the narrow streets near Tiananmen Square were not allowed past the blue and white police tape.

The state-controlled TV station made sure to stage-manage a pleasant atmosphere. They even had a woman wearing a red polo shirt hold up a sign in front of the stand where foreign dignitaries were sitting which said: "We are about to film you, please do not look directly into the camera." If she needed the hand-picked audience to applaud, then she clapped her hands. The diplomats copied her and were delighted if they caught a glimpse of themselves on the giant screens.

What lay in store for the audience was a revisionist celebration in lockstep that gave some observers the shivers because it seemed so out of step with the present day.

Is China marching back in time? Is it turning its back on economic reforms and enormous growth rates? Is it moving away from state-controlled capitalism? Is Mao being raised from the grave?

Probably not. After all, things in China are never black and white. There are many Chinas that exist side by side. This kind of parade is aimed at the ordinary people and the old party comrades, says Geremie Barmé, an Australian professor with profound knowledge of Chinese traditions. The country's citizens are proud to see this kind of precise military machine and to belong to a strong nation. And the old comrades don't feel quite so out of place in the modern world when they are reminded of the old days.

Such a parade has an "important political meaning, because it strengthens trust in the party leadership and in socialism with Chinese characteristics," the army itself announced.

However, the characteristics on show on Thursday were not particularly attractive.