World’s biggest army on show
It was a baking hot day for the opening of the Our Troops toward the Sun exhibition, but that didn’t stop thousands of people showing up for this impressive display which allows visitors to drive a tank, see Chairman Mao Zedong’s punch-bag or check out a model of a hydrogen bomb. Visitors seemed to particularly enjoy examining in detail the new uniforms of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Gone are the old-school, Long March-inspired, one-size-fits-all uniforms…
… to be replaced by high-tech digital camos and smart dress uniforms.
This year is the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the PLA, the world’s biggest military force, and China is celebrating the occasion with a stirring exhibition. Day one was packed with visitors, including children getting to grips with anti-aircraft guns and dozens of people queuing to fire a warship’s gun.
The exhibition focuses on the PLA’s development since the end of the Civil War in 1949, which swept the Communists to power and marks the PLA’s finest moment.
“The exhibition . . . showcases the development of the PLA and its contribution to national security and world peace,” curator Guo Dehe said.
The PLA has 2.3 million soldiers, 800,000 reservists and a People’s Armed Police of 1.5 million. Since its foundation, it has been transformed from a group of guerrillas into a powerful military machine.
The military is held in very high regard in China as one of the crucial elements behind the formation of the modern state.
“We have no food and uniforms, but enemies will deliver them to us, we have no guns and cannons, but enemies will make them for us,” runs the stirring Song of the Guerilla, which was first written in 1938 and is still a popular marching song today.
A surprise inclusion in the exhibition is Lin Biao, a defence minister who helped defeat Japanese invaders, routed Nationalist troops in China’s civil war during the 1930s and 1940s and commanded Chinese forces in the Korean War. He is honoured as one of the “Ten Marshals” who founded the PLA, although he died a traitor in a mysterious plane crash after apparently plotting to assassinate Mao Zedong, the Communist leader.
“With objective thinking, we decided to put the picture of Lin Biao together with the other nine marshals,” said Jiang Tingyu, a researcher. “We have to show history as it was.”
“We have to show history as it was.”
In the area outside the huge exhibition space, visitors photographed each other with mobile phone cameras in front of 20 armoured vehicles and various artillery, including a tank, an anti-aircraft gun, missiles and attack bombers.
To coincide with the anniversary, local media have been running stories offering an insight into the life of soldiers in the famously secretive army. They are still not allowed to use mobile phones or iPods in many cases, and they still often grow their own food on the grounds of the barracks.
Soldiers have found that the introduction of limited internet access on the bases has allowed them to make their voices better heard.
The exhibition highlights how China’s armed forces “make a valuable contribution to world peace”. China has sent about 5,600 personnel on 15 UN peacekeeping missions since 1990, contributing the most troops among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
The focus of all of China’s military development is on Taiwan, which mainland China has said it would attack if the self-ruled island ever tries to declare independence. A prominent diorama showed a beach invasion, clearly with Taiwan in mind. The exhibition says China’s armed forces “make a valuable contribution to world peace”, a view at variance with a Pentagon report this year which said the growth of the Chinese military could increase tension in Asia.
A report earlier this year said the PLA was growing in sophistication and technological expertise, and that the growth of the Chinese military could contribute to tension in Asia, despite Beijing’s oft-repeated mantra about its “peaceful rise”.
The expansion of China’s navy includes a growing submarine fleet and new ships suitable for the open seas, which has prompted US fears that its military could alter the balance of power in Asia.
A US defence department report said that while Beijing remained focused on the Taiwan Strait as a potential flashpoint, it also appeared to be looking to project its growing military strength elsewhere.
Beijing has co-operated with Washington on military issues, notably on North Korea, but there remains a lot of distrust between the two armies.
China insists that it needs to modernise its military to avoid falling further behind the US. At the National People’s Congress in March, China said it would boost defence spending by 17.8 per cent, to €33 billion this year.
The Pentagon report cited US intelligence estimates that China’s total military-related spending for 2007 could really be as high as €90 billion.
As Beijing is quick to point out, this compares with Washington’s defence spend of about €360 billion, not including Iraq and Afghanistan.
There was keen interest in the PLA’s new uniforms, which are called “07 Style”.
The military has also been given new fatigues, which are designed with “digital camouflage”, computer-generated camouflage patterns designed to simulate natural environments.
The previous camouflage patterns worn by the PLA training outfits were hand-painted, accentuating the sharp contrast between different colours.
The red band, which has featured on the big-brimmed green army hats for decades, has disappeared, a change that some have opposed saying the colour red was the main symbol of the Communist Party and should stay.
However, red didn’t match the uniforms and had to go.
Unchanged will be the PLA cap emblem, which is round with a design of five stars and the characters for “8″ and “1″, symbolising August 1st, the anniversary of the 1927 Nanchang Uprising, surrounded by ears of grain and a cog wheel.
