China's Army Day parade shows resolution to safeguard peace

Chinese President Xi Jinping watched the military parade marking the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), which falls on Aug. 1, at the Zhurihe training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

During the parade, Xi delivered a keynote speech urging further improvement of the PLA's combat effectiveness and modernization of China's national defense.

Xi stressed in his speech the need for the PLA to promote fighting capabilities to win wars, said Shi Pengxun, principal research fellow at the Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney.

"The parade conveyed a clear message to the outside world that China is militarily prepared for any case with a resolution to safeguard peace," said Shi, who is also an adjunct senior research fellow at the Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore.

Guo Shengxiang, dean of the Academy of APEC Creative Finance, an Australian think tank, believes that a military force conforming to economic strength for China serves as a guarantee for peace. "This will help the world share China's peace dividends along with economic ones," he said.

Overseas Chinese applauded the Army Day parade, believing a strong army is necessary to guarantee China's development and prosperity.

"China's development and peaceful rise in a complicated international environment call for an army capable of safeguarding peace," said Chen Ronghua, honorary chairman of the US association of Fujian townsmen.

Commenting on China's military development over the past decades, Belarussian Defense Minister Andrei Ravkov has recently said the PLA is today a well-equipped and modernized military force, making a huge contribution to maintaining regional and global security.

Qiao Fengxiang, Professor of Texas Southern University and Founding President of US-China Friendship Association, said that the peaceful rise of China requires peaceful domestic and international environments, which however do not always come naturally to any country.