Wide-side white wall tires on war trucks. Too cool.

So Chicom troops are too lame to march a proper pass in review? What's the term... oh yeah, paper tiger.

Great camera work, though. That was Hollywood grade stuff.

They do it this was to show they're not using the old Soviet Union trick of running the same missile launchers and tanks past the podium again and again.

The people are unarmed, the tyrant rides unprotected, unworried about being assassinated. All is well in Beulah Land.

My God, 0bambi must be green with envy.

That thing looks like a recruiting video for Soros International (Unlimited.)

Hmmmm....

I think I saw this one before.

All it needs is the soundtrack. Lemmeee see... oh yes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5yWD59VpbE

There... the video is much better with this playing in the background.

This is the regime that Tom Friedman thinks the USA should emulate.

The Chinese will not be remembered for their music. Or maybe they will.

El Baboso .... hardly a paper tiger

I dwell in NM, home of Wen Ho-Ho-Ho Lee, and the missing flash drives during the Los Alamos Nat'l Lab fires.

Going back even farther, they have a missile force that includes both short and long range ballistic vehicles that can vector during terminal stage ... meaning they can evade lock-and-destroy by an antimissile system. Any system. And that was their capability during the Clinton years.

I will make it even simpler; they don't need carriers - since they can "negate" ours easily. We would have to forward deploy across easily severed sea and air lanes. Them ? notsomuch. And they have no spineless, politically correct please oh please like us executive agent in place, nor would they lack the will to use tactical or strategic canned sunshine.

Their view is a long one, not like ours. They sit astride the Panama Canal, control Indonesian archipelago waterways, are leading the international movement away from the $$ and into another currency, are buying up WAREHOUSES of copper, single-handedly raising the worlds' price on uranium ore, and are actually doing pure R & D.

Rethink your cavalier commentary, or start those Rosetta Stone Mandarinn lessons, friend

I propose a subtitle contest! I'll start.

The premier says, "If I have an itch on my ASS?"

ALL respond, "We dedicate ourselves to scratching it!"

Agree with Rob, too. Don't let Obama see this.

Good thing Teh Preznit is all about reducing American power to ensure world peace.

JWM

El Baboso,

I watched it live on TV. The whole bunch then marched past the review stand in formation so tight and perfect that the best drill teams in the world would be green with envy.

The main part of this parade was a demonstration of new weapon systems, never seen before by western military analysts that were developed locally.

20 years ago, China was unable to display this kind of power. 20 years of pseudo free market reforms have been a huge engine of growth to the entire Chinese economy. They are unshackling their economy as the West continues to bind their own.

The Chinese are proud of who there are an what they are accomplishing. Very, very proud. Even those not directly under the rule of the mother country.

And they play the long view. You could say they wrote the history book on it..

The economic power of China will be self-limiting. Real economic power demands real liberty, not imitation, and as much as we are losing our economic liberty, they have never gained it or much cared to.

The bubbles in the Chinese economy are not well known, because little in China can be well known. The lethal bubble in Chinese demographics is well known and are still well ignored.

China will be dangerous as it is weak, not as it is strong. That is why it is dangerous. The United States was beneficent because it was strong.

All the little ants (don't) go marching.....

My Mandarin Chinese ain't that great, after years of non-use, but here is what I gather they are saying:

Chinese Leader: "I have small dick!"
Chinese Millitary: "Yes, you have small dick!"

Or my translation could be rusty....

Have their soldiers all been bio-engineered and cloned or are they growing them on sprout farms?!

They are all identical.

westsoundmodern asked, "Have their soldiers all been bio-engineered and cloned or are they growing them on sprout farms?" I noticed the same thing. No short or tall soldiers. All uniform in height.

As my grandpa said back in WWII, "The dictatorships know how to make regimented shows and follow a strict plan. When war begins the plan never works out. Soldiers who can think for themselves and improvise always come out on top." I think that still applies today. Not that the Chinese are not an armed force to keep our eyes on, but no way are they a fighting force that can match up to us.

This doesn't look real. Did this actually happen or was it manufactured? Can anyone verify it?

Dear China:

Thanks for the cash. If you declare war or do anything else that is slightly less stupid, we'll suspend/seize/cancel the bonds like we have always done. Good luck with that.

Love,
USA

P.S.: If you are so wonderful, China, why aren't you spending your money on things like rural electrification? Or is the USA the really safe place to put the cash?

P.P.S.: How many generals in the PLA have put those bonds somewhere safe 'just in case'?

Why is Hu Jintao riding past the armed battalions, instead of watching as they march past him?

I think because many of the soldiers "on parade" are not really soldiers. Particularly in the case of the women's regiments, I think I remember reading that they hired models to stand in place.

Appearance matters more than substance in more than one country on the earth.

Time to dust off your copies of Triumph of the Will and observe the similarities.

This has a very strange visual effect. Almost like CGI or something...slightly unreal quality. Almost perfect, but not quite enough to fool the eye.

I think Punditarian has a point: This was a potemkin parade, more indicative of the mess of conflicting impulses in China more than anything else.

What are they going to all that hardware on?

No heavy airlift capability; no heavy sealift capability; no experience in military logistics or actually projecting their power. The last time they shot at a real army (the Vietnamese in 1979) they didn't exactly make a good showing.

Look, you can make all that stuff, but actually employing it is something else again.

Long view? Why'd they let the British force opium on them then?

China has fallen apart before. No reason it will not again.

Eric Blair said, "Look, you can make all that stuff, but actually employing it is something else again."

Spot on! Getting the beans and bullets to the grunts is what wins wars.

Nice subtle soft focus on Mao and the 81 Nanchang Uprising symbol within the red stars of the PLA armor.

Wouldn't want to upset the capitalist who owe them so much rope.

China - thousands of years of existence
USA - less than 250.
Hate to say it, but the odds favor china.

for the Geostrategists who've commented on Chinas' inability to "project" power .....

And next time, go with the less-cute George Orwell as opposed to Eric Blair ....

Clue-up

Chinese submarines, destroyers spotted in high seas near Okinawa
Tuesday 13th April, 09:44 AM JST

TOKYO —
Two Chinese submarines and eight destroyers were spotted by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force on Saturday in the high seas between the main island of Okinawa and Miyako Island in the southernmost prefecture, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said Tuesday.

"Chinese submarines, destroyers spotted in high seas near Okinawa
Tuesday 13th April, 09:44 AM JST

TOKYO —
Two Chinese submarines and eight destroyers were spotted by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force on Saturday in the high seas between the main island of Okinawa and Miyako Island in the southernmost prefecture, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said Tuesday."

Oh my, they actually have some ships. When, oh when, will we ever have such magnificent craft?

The long view, yes, of course. They've taken the long road, too, and should be proud of what they have accomplished with our money and technology. Yet how is it that folks are so eager to display their reverence for China (and demand we show it, too) when Western Civilization dominates most every aspect of social and political development in the modern world, while unfree peasant laborers comprise the majority of of China's population?

A commenter said China is dangerous precisely because she is not strong. So true.