PLA holds parade to celebrate 90th birthday, show off reform achievement

China holds a military parade at Zhurihe training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on July 30, 2017, in celebration of the 90th birthday of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. [Photo: China Plus/Li Jin]

For the first time, a parade to celebrate the birthday of the People's Liberation Army has been held in battlefield conditions in a remote military training base in Inner Mongolia.

Thousands of PLA troops marched in combat gear. President Xi Jinping, riding in a jeep, inspected to the troops to mark the army's 90th anniversary.

Sunday's parade came along with a regular combat-oriented training program at the same base in Inner Mongolia, in which most participants in the parade were involved as well.

The PLA leadership claims such arrangement was aimed at testing the battle capability and flexibility of Chinese armed forces.

Army officer, Zhang Ming, helped plan the parade.

"From the facilities in the venue to the command system, everything is battlefield-based. Even the temporary electricity supply had to be established. Unlike parades held at the Tiananmen Square in the past, this time we don't have existing command facilities such as buildings. So, we rely on makeshift command centers, which are vehicles in camouflage."

PLA officers emphasize a sense of battlefield reality, rather than just a military show, is what they want to present to the public.

Preparations for the event were initiated two months ago.

In the past, PLA soldiers would have spent many more months training specifically for a single two-hour-long parade held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

Xie Xincheng, one of the army officers in command of the ground forces of the parade, says they were also eager to show innovations in the formatting of the troops.

"Many sections of the parade have mixed format, and this is one major difference from past practices. Some are mixtures of soldiers of different responsibilities within one PLA unit, while some are mixtures of different units. Such mixtures, which are battle-oriented, represent the characteristic of joint military operations."

Air Force officer Fang Huiyu with the Central Theater Command was behind the organization of the aerial forces of Sunday's parade.

He says the event was an opportunity to explore how to effectively coordinate different PLA services in joint actions under the new theater command system.

"Our work this time is very complicated. There is a complex network involving different parties for us to coordinate. The aerial forces in the parade not only engage the air force, but also the aviation units of the army and navy. Some forces belong to the Central Theater Command, but some come from other battle zones."

Sunday's parade saw the first public debut of the intelligence-focused PLA Strategic Support Force since it was established in December, 2015.

The PLA Rocket Force, which is in charge of China's ballistic missiles, participated for the first time as a unit on a par with the army, navy, and air force.

President Xi Jinping has been pushing for reforms since late 2013 to professionalize the Chinese military. A reform plan gradually took shape after Xi announced a 300,000 troop reduction in September, 2015.

Other landmark measures from the plan include a structural overhaul of the Central Military Commission as well as efforts to enhance balance within the military.

The army, which had long dominated the PLA, now accounts for less than 50 percent of the armed forces.