Beijing
After over four months of laborious dawn to dusk practicing, several dress-rehearsal run-throughs, and endless planning, the October 1 National Day parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Peoples’ Republic came off without a hitch. The fact that there were no glitches or major faux pas comes as no surprise because China is the land of no surprises. This is the land where the Communist Party’s legions of secret police, informants, security services, hidden microphones, video surveillance networks–aided by thousands of “patriotic volunteers”–are placed about in overwhelming numbers to make sure that someone planning something off-color (even if only in their dreams) never even gets to first base.
National Day parades are not unusual–particularly in authoritarian police states–but for the PRC this year’s parade is taking place at a time when an ominous confluence of forces and historical trends are intersecting. There are signs that the country is now at a fork in the road, and how the government and its increasingly internally conflicted Communist Party decide to focus their resources and priorities will determine its future direction.
