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Some 500,000 elated
army men and
civilians held a grand military and civilian parade at the Tian'anmen
Square Friday morning to celebrate the 50th founding anniversary of the
People's Republic of China. The parade featured 90 floats and 38 square
formations of people of various backgrounds, 42 formations of troops and
latest weaponry including tanks, armored vehicles, missiles and a fly-over
display of 132 warplanes. China's top leader Jiang Zemin and
other senior Chinese Party and State leaders reviewed the 2-hour parade
from the Tian'anmen Rostrum where the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong
proclaimed the birth of new China on October 1, 1949. At about 10:00, the celebrations
began with a 50-gun salute, followed by the playing of the national anthem
by a 1,200-member military band and the raising of the five-star national
flag on Tian'anmen Square. To the strains of a military music
piece played by the brass band, Chairman Jiang Zemin of the Central
Military Commission started reviewing the troops in square formations
which extend about three kilometers. After that he delivered an important
speech on the Tian'anmen Rostrum. From the mid-19th century to mid-20th
century, the Chinese people fought bloody battles for 100 years and
finally won the national independence and people's liberation, thus
changing their destiny once and for all, Jiang said. "From the middle of this century
to that of the next, the Chinese people, with hard and enterprising work
of 100 years, will by and large bring about socialist modernization. The
Chinese nation will stand rock-firm in the family of nations," the
Chinese leader said. "The complete reunification of
the motherland and the maintenance of its security are the very foundation
for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the unshakable will
of all the Chinese people," he stressed.
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People's
Republic of China (PRC)
