Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The People’s Republic of China marked its 60th anniversary today, staging a parade through the heart of Beijing to demonstrate the country’s rising global influence.

President Hu Jintao, wearing a black suit similar to one worn by People’s Republic founder Mao Zedong, joined former President Jiang Zemin and members of the ruling Politburo Standing Committee on the rostrum of Tiananmen -- the Gate of Heavenly Peace. It was there, on Oct. 1, 1949, that Mao declared the Communist Party’s victory in a civil war.

China was “able and confident in playing its global role,” Hu said in a speech, in which he vowed that the country would seek “peaceful reunification” with Taiwan. The island has been ruled for much of the past 60 years by the Nationalists, who fled there following their defeat at Mao’s hands.

Hundreds of missiles and tanks and thousands of soldiers from the world’s largest standing army paraded down Chang’an Avenue through Tiananmen Square following Hu’s speech. He had earlier reviewed the troops from an open-topped Red Flag limousine, yelling out “Hello comrades” and “Comrades it’s been hard on you.” Overhead, 151 military aircraft, including J-10fighter jets, flew past in 12 formations.

Hu and his fellow leaders are celebrating China’s newfound prominence on the global stage. China now produces in a day the equivalent of a year’s output five decades ago, and is poised to surpass Japan as the world’s second-largest economy by 2010. The Communists, who lifted 300 million citizens from abject poverty and raised the country’s international influence, must now meet increasing demands for domestic freedom and accountability.

‘Show-Off’

The celebration “is a show-off to beef up confidence in, and support to, the regime,” said Huang Jing, visiting professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. “Serious questions need to be asked how such a show of strength can translate into” transparency and tolerance for “ethnic, cultural and religious diversity.”

About 80,000 children in Tiananmen Square spelled out the Chinese characters for “national celebration” with red and gold placards to begin the celebration. Later, the placards read “obey the Party’s command” and “serve the people.”

The People’s Liberation Army displayed 52 types of new weapons, including unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft with advance-warning radar. Five thousand soldiers marched through the square, past portraits of Mao and Sun Yat-Sen, Republican China’s first president after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912.

Nuclear Strike

Among the new weapons, according to China Central Television, was a cruise missile called the Long Sword. As a battery of Dongfeng (East Wind) intercontinental ballistic missiles on mobile carriers drove by, the CCTV commentator reminded viewers that China abided by a pledge never to make a first nuclear strike.

Up to 200,000 people took part in the parade, which included a flotilla of 60 vehicles bedecked with flowers and digital displays showcasing six decades of China’s political, scientific, technological and economic achievements.

Among those were floats with portraits of Mao, Deng Xiaoping, a leader who died in 1997, as well as Jiang and Hu. Each were accompanied by recordings of their famous speeches, and thousands of marchers surrounding the floats carried banners trumpeting catchphrases such as “implement and carry out scientific development.”

Disney Music

The celebration is an opportunity for the government to showcase its achievements to the country’s 1.3 billion people. CCTV’s broadcast of the event telecast preparations of the parade, complete with marching soldiers, jets and tanks, with the theme of Disney Co.’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” in the background. A commentator extolled the economic achievements of the People’s Republic in the minutes before the parade began.

Police kept most of Beijing’s 3.8 million private cars off of the roads today, and restricted access to the city center. South of Di’anmen Street, which bisects the inner city from east to west, police armed with machine guns blocked cars from heading toward Tiananmen Square this morning.

The PLA parade is the 14th since the army emerged victorious in the 1949 civil war against the Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, which now governs Taiwan.

China’s economy may surpass the U.S. by 2027, according to a projection by New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Foreign currency reserves are the world’s largest at $2.13 trillion, and the country is the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury securities, with $800.5 billion at the end of July. The country’s largest lender, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., is the world’s biggest by value and its most profitable.

Opposition Banned

Economic growth and rising global influence have come at the cost of domestic expression. Opposition to Communist Party rule is banned while dissent, including the 1989 student demonstrations in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, is crushed.

As many as 800 million Chinese, 60 percent of the population, still live in the countryside, and rapid development has left millions of them behind. Still socialist in name, China has a wider income gap than Taiwan and South Korea have now, or had during their export-led industrializations.

The gaps are made wider by the spread of corruption. Graft has reached into the senior ranks of officials, with those convicted including the former parliamentary vice chairman Cheng Kejie and Shanghai party chief Chen Liangyu.

Ethnic Tensions

Even as Tiananmen Square is festooned today with 56 columns representing the country’s biggest ethnic groups, many Uighurs and Tibetans say they see China as an empire diluting their indigenous cultures.

The worst riots in six decades broke out in the past two years in Tibet and the Uighur’s homeland of Xinjiang, two provinces on China’s western fringe, spurred by income gaps along ethnic and religious fissures.

The world’s most populous nation has also become the largest consumer of commodities and one of the biggest energy users. China last year passed the U.S. as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses, and widespread pollution of its atmosphere and waterways is rarely checked by public opposition.

The smog that enveloped Beijing for three days before today’s parade lifted overnight after a light rainfall and the parade took place under clear blue skies.

--Michael Forsythe, Eugene Tang: Editors: John Brinsley, Ben Richardson.

To contact Bloomberg staff on this story: Michael Forsythe in Beijing +8610-6649-7580 or mforsythe@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 1, 2009 01:01 EDT