China’s military display shows it has the might to back up Xi’s vision of a new world order

The huge military parade through central Beijing on Wednesday was a deliberately fearsome display of weaponry designed to send a message that Xi Jinping’s vision of a new world order with China at the apex will be backed up with high-tech arms that would seem, in many cases, to be ahead of its rivals.

While much post-parade attention will be focused on new long-range nuclear-armed weapons – like the DF-61 intercontinental ballistic missile – what may be even more important in the long run are weapons like the new mobile truck- and ship-mounted laser air defense weapons.

If these are already deployed in numbers in the People’s Liberation Army forces (PLA), as China indicated in pre-parade press conferences, they could present real problems for any adversary’s ability to blunt Chinese military movements around the region.

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