Showcase of Newest Weapons

Agrand military parade as a part of the National Day celebrations was staged at Beijing’s historic Tiananmen Square recently to showcase China’s achievements in building a modern and strong national defence and armed forces over the past decades. Commemorative state events at the square are said to be highly orchestrated events and Beijing used the 70th anniversary to put on full display the country’s unprecedented array of highly-advanced weaponry second to none in the world. Chinese People’s Liberation Army rolled out for the first time at the parade the Donfeng-41 (DF-41) intercontinental ballistic missile, which is capable of reaching any point in the United States in 30 minutes carrying as many as 10 independently-targetable warheads. The missile with a range of 15,000km would be the world’s longest-range military missile reportedly capable of violating anti-missile defences. There were 70 new model helicopters among 580 pieces of equipment. Other weapons included two new designs of unmanned Chinese aircraft paraded on truck trailers intended to support air raids against welldefended ground targets and carrier battle groups. Some were rolled out across the tarmac for the first time during the parade. Xi descended to the street level of the square and passed by each row of military equipment riding in a black open-topped, red flag limousine, responding “Hello comrades” to shouts from groups of 15,000 soldie...