60th Anniversary National Day Parade

Violet Oboe said:

Naturally Xi Jinping has to hedge his bets for some years to come but he is indeed more assertive (though you have to listen carefully!) in adressing Chinese interests in discussions with foreign officials though some guys dismiss that as mere semantics.

Of course Xi will have to consolidate his position after assuming the three ´power positions´ in 2012/13 and also establish a working equilibrium with ever wily Li Keqiang but he will also have to win over the top brass in CMC. Possibly forging an alliance with the generals could give Xi Jinping the necessary room for maneuver for implementing his further policy aims.

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if you are referring to his remark in mexico, i read it more as directed towards his comrades in Beijing rather than westerners.

Xi will obviously try to consolidate his position through whatever means possible like every leader that ever existed on this planet, but either way he is not holding a parade in 2014 unless something big happens like they are gonna attack Taiwan in the following month

bladerunner said:

Personally I rather be looking at the women forces marching along in their Jackboots, like the women military and the women detachment dreesed in Red in the 1999 parade.What did they belong to?

Are jackboots still part of the military issue are are they only for parades?

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those are the militia, but in reality they are just civie girls selected and paid to do the job. everyone else are real soldiers including the SOF. though i disagree with taking valuable manpower off of their posting for several months to practice for this parade. China only has less than 10000 of these highly-trained SOF guys and now they are short 200 ppl for secretive operations along Chinese borders and other security related tasks

pla101prc said:

those are the militia, but in reality they are just civie girls selected and paid to do the job. everyone else are real soldiers including the SOF. though i disagree with taking valuable manpower off of their posting for several months to practice for this parade. China only has less than 10000 of these highly-trained SOF guys and now they are short 200 ppl for secretive operations along Chinese borders and other security related tasks

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You think these troops are actually combat units? I always thought that they were dedicated "face" soldiers whose job is to look pretty at various parades. If you notice that they are all the same height and built. And their training is how to walk and stand in unison. I don't even think those SOF soldiers are actually SOF, just "models". Plus, photos will be taken at the parade. I don't think they want their faces be shown all over the world.

vesicles said:

You think these troops are actually combat units? I always thought that they were dedicated "face" soldiers whose job is to look pretty at various parades. If you notice that they are all the same height and built. And their training is how to walk and stand in unison. I don't even think those SOF soldiers are actually SOF, just "models". Plus, photos will be taken at the parade. I don't think they want their faces be shown all over the world.

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that's what i thought the first time i heard that there is gonna be an SOF sq. but CCTV reported that these guys are having trouble marching because they are used to walk with no sound, where in a parade you are slamming your feet on the ground.
my guess is that the SOF units have to contribute troops to the event cuz it shows that they "care" about the president's "face".

bladerunner said:

Personally I rather be looking at the women forces marching along in their Jackboots, like the women military and the women detachment dreesed in Red in the 1999 parade.What did they belong to?

Are jackboots still part of the military issue or are they only for parades?

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Don't know about the jackboots being standard issue but check these links for photos of female forces preparing for the parade.

pla101prc said:

that's what i thought the first time i heard that there is gonna be an SOF sq. but CCTV reported that these guys are having trouble marching because they are used to walk with no sound, where in a parade you are slamming your feet on the ground.
my guess is that the SOF units have to contribute troops to the event cuz it shows that they "care" about the president's "face".

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It sounds to me that CCTV is trying to convince people these guys are actually SOF. In addition to all the physical stuff, you got to be pretty smart to get into SOF. And you have to be able to adapt to any condition quickly. If they can't even learn how to slam their feet on the ground in weeks/months of training, I'd think PLA is in deep trouble since their SOF is too dumb...

The typical "there is no $300 buried under this sign" syndrome, I'd say...

Violet Oboe said:

Actually China has developed a ´russian style´ ICBM launcher (possibly with help from Belarus) somewhat resembling a Topol launching vehicle but obviously PLA is not prepared to show off that stuff for now.

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Engineer said:

Oh, they have it, but for some reasons they aren't showing it.

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Of course the reason for not showing it is that they dont have it. They always show the best in these parades, including stuff that hasnt yet entered service.

kroko said:

Of course the reason for not showing it is that they dont have it. They always show the best in these parades, including stuff that hasnt yet entered service.

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No. They do have it.

Engineer said:

No. They do have it.

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Then where is it?

@kroko:
Do some research on chinese military forums and you will probably be enlightened.

Moreover your assumption that PLA generally shows off the most modern (even not deployed) equipment on national day parades is utter nonsense since e.g. J-10 and HN-1/2 cruise missiles were conspicuously absent in 1999 as even experts like yourself should have already noticed!