China rolled out its most modern weapons on yesterday to mark the 50th anniversary of communist rule, a display aimed, at least in part, at rival Taiwan and its US backers.
Models of the intercontinental ballistic missile Dong Feng-31 (East Wind-31) on hard-to-find mobile launchers rumbled past Tiananmen Square, the center of student-led demonstrations for democracy crushed by the army in 1989.
Warplanes, including the new indigenous Flying Leopard fighter bomber, flew past the Gate of Heavenly Peace, where head of state, military chief and Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin watched a huge military parade with politburo colleagues.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The display of might came amid a bitter row with Taipei over Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui's July declaration of political equality which enraged Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province.
Beijing, which insists Taiwan must be reunified with the motherland, saw Lee's move as a "dangerous" lurch towards independence.
It has threatened to invade if Taiwan declares independence and yesterday's military parade -- the first since 1984 and the biggest ever -- showed off China's anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles.
The two-hour parade, which halted traffic in central Beijing, also featured short-range missiles which are believed to be deployed against Taiwan.
"What they wanted to show was missiles and rockets," said one Asian military specialist who did not want to be identified.
"Fifty percent of the military parade was missiles and rockets," he said. "They're reasonably proud of it."
"It's not state of the art, but it's okay for Asia."
The 2.5 million-strong People's Liberation Army also showed off military aircraft ranging from the Russian Sukhoi-27 to bombers, fighters, ground-attack aircraft, strike fighters and helicopters of the army, navy and air force. The supersonic Flying Leopard can carry four air-to-air or air-to-surface missiles with a total weight of five tons. It has a range of about 1,600km.
The DF-31 surface-to-surface missile can carry a single 700kg nuclear warhead over 8,000km, which puts the US within its range.
The green missile, which underwent its latest test in August, is two to three years away from deployment, defense experts said.
It had initially been scheduled for deployment in 2000.
The DF-31 is designed to replace the DF-4, a missile with half the range that was developed in the 1960s, the experts said.
China was expected to build between 10 and 20 DF-31 missiles, they said. The Dong Feng was the subject of spying allegations in a politically explosive report issued in May by a special committee of the US Congress. The report alleged that two decades of Chinese spying on the US helped Beijing advance its missile and nuclear warhead programs.
Chinese-made aerial refuel tankers made their debut, emphasizing an ability to keep warplanes in the air for long periods of time.
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