Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has presided over a spectacular display of military and political might, ordering members of his 2.3 million-strong armed forces to “unswervingly follow the absolute leadership of the Communist party of China”.
Xi donned camouflage fatigues for the hour-long Sunday morning parade, which marked the 90th anniversary of the creation of China’s People’s Liberation Army, on 1 August 1927.The procession took place at a sand-swept, 1,000 sq kilometre camp that state media described as China’s answer to the United States’ Fort Irwin national training centre in the Mojave desert. Foreign journalists were not invited to witness proceedings at the Zhurihe military training base, 400km north-west of Beijing in Inner Mongolia.
