As the 60th National Day of the People's Republic of China (PRC) draws near and the preparations for a military parade enter the final stage, Li Xinliang, general commander of the 1999 parade, spoke to Xinhua about the country's last military parade a decade ago.
"We selected the participating troops based on three standards," said Li, also former commander of the Beijing Military Area Command. "They had to be competent militarily and qualified politically; they had big military exploits and won numerous awards; they were well-equipped.
"Those who joined the parade were all picked troops among the whole People's Liberation Army (PLA)," Li said.
China is to hold grand celebrations on and around Oct. 1 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, including a military parade. It will be the 14th parade since 1949.
From 1949 to 1959, National Day military parades were an annual event. It was later suspended for 24 years until 1984.
The latest massive parade was in 1999 when the PRC marked its 50th birthday.
The decision for a military review on the 50th National Day in 1999 was made at the beginning of 1998, which allowed enough time for thorough preparations, Li said.
"First, the Central Military Commission set up a leading team for the parade, headed by Fu Quanyou, then chief of the general staff of the PLA," Li said. Li and several other PLA leaders were appointed as deputy heads of the team.
Li said the leading team had the first meeting in March, 1998, and decided to select troops mainly from the Beijing Military Area Command, which was also in charge of setting up the command office of the parade.
The lineup of the 1999 parade surpassed all the previous parades, with 42 ground phalanxes and 10 flying phalanxes composed of more than 11,000 soldiers and 409 units of heavy equipment.
Of the 42 varieties of large equipment, more than 95 percent had never joined a parade before, Li said. Most of the equipment was developed and made by China.
The parade saw the debut of China's third-generation tanks, new strategic nuclear missiles and supersonic fighter bombers.
The participating troops included all segments of China's armed forces. The parade also included more armed branches of the PLA than any of the 13 previous events.
It was the first time for units such as army aviation, marine corps, special armed police corps and reserve-duty forces, to join National Day parades.
The display also saw the largest number of missiles presented by the PLA Second Artillery Corps. The missile phalanxes consisted of conventional ground-to-ground missiles, medium-range ground-to-ground nuclear missiles, and long-range ground-to-ground nuclear missiles.
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