There were fireworks the likes of which the world has never seen; 500 tanks in Tiananmen Square and 5,000 troops on the march - saluted by 151 military aircraft - streaking low across the skies.

China’s Communist Party pulled off a picture-perfect parade to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its rule, stamping its authority and instilling pride among its people.

The highlight of the day was the military parade, a demonstration of the strides China is making in modernising its army since the last similar occasion 10 years ago.

State media boasted of the latest hardware that was on display as 52 new-generation weapons systems trundled through the centre of Beijing and Tiananmen Square along with goose-stepping troops from the People’s Liberation Army.

Times Archive, 1949: Mao proclaims China's People's Republic

At a mass rally at the Forbidden City, Mao Tse-Tung formally inaugurated the new regime

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President Hu Jintao, head of the party and the military, stood on the Tiananmen podium — the Gate of Heavenly Peace — to watch the show from the spot where Chairman Mao declared the founding of the People’s Republic six decades ago.

Most excitement centred on the newest-model nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles, with a range that puts Washington within their sights. There were also new unmanned aerial drones, amphibious fighting vehicles and new DH-10 land-based anti-ship cruise missiles. Around 5,000 troops took part in the show of strength, half the number of a decade ago — a message that China is focusing its military modernisation on quality rather than quantity.

President Hu opened the proceedings in traditional fashion by reviewing the troops and tanks lined up along the Avenue of Eternal Peace that bisects Beijing. Standing in an open-top bespoke, domestically made Red Flag limousine, he shouted to the pride of the PLA: “Hello Comrades” and, “Comrades, you have worked hard!” They yelled back: “Hello Chairman” and, “Serve the People.”

Swapping his usual business suit for a sharply cut high-collared dark grey Mao suit, President Hu told the nation that China sought only peace with the world. But he emphasised Beijing’s pride in its advances over the past 60 years.

He said: “Today a socialist China that faces the future is standing tall and firm in the East. The development and progress of new China over the past 60 years fully proved that only socialism can save China and only reform and opening up can ensure the development of China.”

An AWACS plane led an airborne display of China’s air force skills. More than 150 aircraft screamed overhead in a show that thrilled the city. All were clearly visible in the almost cloudless blue sky that followed two days of low-lying smog that swaddled the notoriously polluted capital. It was not clear if the perfect weather was a result of cloud-busting by 18 air force planes or the clemency of nature.

The soldiers, drilled to perfection for months, barely blinked as they marched in front of the leaders’ podium. They goose-stepped in perfect unison across the top of Tiananmen Square. Inside the huge plaza, around 80,000 schoolchildren who had trained throughout the summer held up red and yellow fans and flash cards to create enormous pictures and slogans. So huge were the slogans that it took 16,000 children to create the first character in the two-word phrase for “nation”.

The parade comprised 56 phalanxes of soldiers — one for each of China’s ethnic groups. Ethnic unity has become a theme of the anniversary as the leadership struggles with the aftermath of a violent riot in July in the far west when 197 people died as angry members of the ethnic Uighur Muslim minority took out their anger against Han Chinese immigrants. The memories of last year’s anti-Chinese riot in Tibet are also fresh.

Following the soldiers came 60 floats in a parade of 100,000 civilians. Waving paper and plastic flowers and red banners, participants strode the length of the broad avenue that had been widened to give them space. These included an “Environment Float” decorated with huge green leaves and a “Democracy Float” that featured a model of the Great Hall of the People — a monument closely associated with the Communist Party. In the background, the flashcards waved by schoolchildren: read “Socialism is Good”.

The floats also carried huge portraits of the four leaders from the Communist pantheon who have ruled China during the last six decades. First came Chairman Mao. He was followed by Deng Xiaoping, who never formally held the top job but oversaw the parade in 1984 and is credited with transforming China from a poverty-mired backwater into the world’s third-largest economy. Next came the previous president, Jiang Zemin, and then the current incumbent, Hu Jintao — both watching from Tiananmen in an attempted show of unity between the rivals.

The two-and-a-half-hour pageant was intended to underscore what President Hu called the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”.

The public were barred from the Square, where VIP seats were occupied by 30,000 invited and carefully vetted guests. But Chinese have become accustomed to watching the show on television.

One young man echoed the words Mao was supposed to have uttered on October 1, 1949 — but had in fact spoken a few days earlier. He said: “This shows the Chinese people have stood up.”

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