China’s leaders marked the 60th anniversary of Communist Party rule on Thursday with a precision display of military bravado and a confident prediction by President Hu Jintao that “infinitely bright prospects” lay ahead for the world’s most populous nation.

The dense blanket of smog that had covered China’s capital for days disappeared on Thursday morning, leaving crystal skies and perfect autumn temperatures for the columns of armour and thousands of goose-steeping troops that paraded past Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

“Today, a socialist China geared to modernisation, the world and the future has stood rock-firm in the east of the world,” Hu said in a brief speech. The Chinese people “cannot be more proud of the development and progress of our great motherland”.

The morning-long ceremony, a once-every-10-years ritual, mirrored every past National Day event down to Hu’s drive-by review of his troops while standing in the open sunroof of a Chinese-made limousine. Television images showed Hu, wearing a Mao-style high-collared jacket, waving stiffly and calling out “Greetings, comrades!” through four large microphones attached to the automobile roof. Following tradition, the troops replied in unison, “Serve the people!”

To foreigners who saw news reports or watched on the Internet, the proceedings may have had a decidedly Cold War cast. But the events were not designed for outsiders, said Malcolm Cook, who directs the east Asian programme at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, a foreign affairs research organisation in Sydney, Australia.

“The message is for the domestic audience first of all, to show the strength of China, especially now that China is a great power,” he said. Modern Chinese history emphasises the humiliations China suffers at the hands of foreign invaders, he added, and “military parades show that you have significant capabilities that work well”.

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