Parade

1952 National Day military parade

(cctv.com)
Updated: 2009-08-26 14:51

Tanks drive across Tiananmen Square during the 1952 National Day military parade, Beijing, October, 1, 1952. [chinamil.com]

On October 1, 1952, accompanied by Nie Rongzhen, Zhu De reviewed divisions comprising of 11,300 soldiers. Before the parade, Tiananmen Square was expanded and a review stand was added, making the square look wider and more magnificent and the parade more spectacular. The most prominent characteristic of this military parade was that the people's army had a new member – the public security forces. The public security forces were an armed branch organized after the founding of the PRC. In April 1950, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee decided to reorganize the PLA and have it divided into national defense forces and public security forces. In May, a meeting at which all PLA staff departments attended was held in Beijing and a decision was made that the public security forces will account for 4.5 percent of all the armed forces. In September, a commanding institution was established for the public security forces and Luo Ruiqing was appointed as commander and commissar. By 1952, the public security forces around the country had increased to over 500,000 troops, becoming an important armed service of the PLA. The forces' appearance was its first participation in the military parade.

The militia team remained the most spectacular scene. Participants from over a dozen ethnic groups came dressed in colorful national costumes, with new types of weapons. The participation of militia from multiple ethnic groups in the parade symbolized the composition of China's armed forces by people from all over the nation. By this time, China's militia system had already gained further development. The Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) formulated in September 1949 stipulated that the PRC should implement a militia system to protect the local order and establish a national mobilization system. The state released its Interim Regulations on Militia Organization of the People's Republic of China in 1952, marking a nationwide implementation of the militia system.

Translated by LOTO