“A lot of people have had multiple days off work, so they’re pretty excited about that,” she adds. One day ahead of the big event, “businesses were closed, gas stations were closed, hospitals were closed,” Makinen says. Makinen says residents in her Beijing apartment complex, which sits near the parade route, were told to stay inside and even refrain from turning on their gas stoves during the parade. “It’s not like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade where you can just amble down to the curb with your lawn chair and expect to gawk at what’s being paraded on the street,” says Julie Makinen, China correspondent of the LA Times. But those folks are authorized to be part of an audience of ordinary people who’ll be watching the parade from bleachers. There are sure be some scenes of flag-waving crowds.
And it is indeed an event made for television. The Chinese people will have to enjoy this display of national power and pride on TV. They’ve told the public to stay home, stay off of their balconies, and to avoid even peeking out the window at the procession of military personnel and hardware that will move through the heart of the Chinese capital on Thursday. The parade will feature some 12,000 members of the People’s Liberation Army, 200 modern aircraft, a small contingent of troops from allied nations – including Russia, Belarus, Cuba, Pakistan, Mexico, Mongolia and Central Asian states - and, of course, some cutting edge military hardware.Ĭhinese authorities want things to go smoothly and they are not leaving things to chance. It is about giving the Chinese people something to feel proud of,” explains an op-ed from China’s national news agency, Xinhua. “The parade is not about China flexing its military muscle to scare other countries. After all, that’s sort of the purpose of the grand plaza of central Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.īut Thursday will be the first time the Chinese government pulls out all the stops to mark the end of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japan.īut in China, the end of the war brought an end to a century of Chinese humiliation at the hands of foreign imperialist powers, with Japan being the worst of all.Īnd that’s the real purpose of this week’s big parade. The Chinese Communist Party has done these types of processions before.
Beijing is getting ready to put on a massive military parade.
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