All the troops and equipment for China's massive National Day celebrations on October 1 in Beijing are ready for the final show after four months of preparations and rehearsals, a spokesman at the joint headquarters for the military parade said on Wednesday.

Major General Gao Jianguo said at a press conference that all the weapon systems to be shown in the parade were domestically produced hardware.
The once-in-a-decade military display involving about 5,000 personnel, tanks, missile-carrying vehicles and more than 150 aircraft began preparations and training in several military bases in Beijing's outskirts in May.

The spokesman said after a dress rehearsal last Friday night, in which the soldiers marched in front of Tian'anmen Square on Chang'an Avenue, the ground formations were ready for the 66-minute parade.

At 11 am Monday morning, 151 aircraft raced through the air over the square, the only rehearsal for the parade's aircraft formations.

Gao also dismissed the allegation that a powerful military capacity shown by the high-profile parade might worry China's neighboring countries, saying that holding a military parade on major festivals is an international practice.

"The parade will embody China's economic and technological progress with new achievements in the modernization of its national defense," Gao said.

"Whether a country's military power would raise threats to other nations depends on the nature of the country's defense policies," he explained.
Fifty-two types of new weapon systems developed with China's own technologies, including airborne early warning and control aircraft, will be showcased at the military parade.

Further cutting-edge weaponry would include sophisticated radar, unmanned aerial vehicles and satellite communication devices of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), said Lieutenant General Fang Fenghui, general director of the parade.

The parade would also show personnel and equipment from the navy, air force and ballistic missile corps, Fang said.

There will be 56 regiments on the ground and in the air during the parade, symbolizing the country's 56 ethnic groups marching along the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics in solidarity, he disclosed.

Souce:Global Times/ Xinhua