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The message the Chinese government wanted to convey through its whole lavish celebration package was that “New China,” at the age of 60, has become a powerful, rising, confident nation.

According to state media, the parade had enhanced China’s national strength and prestige, raised the spirits and united the hearts of the Chinese people, and proclaimed China as a peaceful and rejuvenated nation.

The message was well received at home, with many Chinese expressing pride – through domestic and foreign websites – at their national strength, and the fact that they can no longer be dominated as in the past.

China’s state media also reported foreign media coverage they considered positive. On the other hand, they questioned why some foreign media failed to “correctly understand” the meaning of the parade. The display of military might generated many commentaries in Asian and Western media, the majority of them warning that China’s enhanced military power would pose a growing threat in the Asia-Pacific region.

Outlook Weekly, published by the official Xinhua News Agency, said it was inevitable that the parade would generate competing viewpoints.

There have been 14 military parades in communist China’s history. The early National Day military parades were staged to act as a deterrent to Chiang Kai-Shek’s Kuomintang troops in Taiwan and to U.S. imperialists, Outlook Weekly explained.

The parade’s other functions – educating and inspiring the people – have carried more weight in the parades that took place in 1984, 1999 and afterwards.

The state weekly went on to explain that New China’s military parades were to show the nation’s preparedness for a “people’s war,” not to subdue an enemy. The term “people’s war,” invented by founding Chairman Mao Zedong, means focusing the strength of the nation’s people on combating invaders and safeguarding the nation.

The implication seems to be that China has no intention of invading foreign lands and its strengthened military force is basically for self defense.

Several Chinese citizens told UPI Asia.com that the nature, culture and tradition of the Han Chinese would not allow them to invade other lands and that the only belligerent Chinese empire in history was the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, from 1271-1368. The Mongolians were an “alien race,” they claimed, although they are now one of the 56 ethnic groups in today’s China.

Since 1949, China has fought in the 1950-53 Korean War – coming to the aid of ally North Korea in its attack on South Korea – and in Vietnam in 1979, attacking Vietnam over its invasion of Cambodia. It has fought a number of small border skirmishes with neighboring countries, as well as sending troops to occupy Tibet in 1950 and putting down a rebellion there in 1954.

China portrays these battles as defending its territory or protecting its allies, while the other combatants involved see them differently.

China also twice attacked Taiwanese troops on small islands under Taiwan’s control, and shot missiles into the Taiwan Strait as recently as 1996. China currently has more than 1,400 missiles targeted at Taiwan, making the island the most vulnerable to a “China threat.”

Chinese President Hu Jintao mentioned cross-strait relations in his National Day speech, saying that China would continue to seek the objective of the country’s “complete unification.”

On Oct. 1, Taiwan’s Premier Wu Den-Yih told local media that he believes the two sides will eventually walk the path of peace, but that Taiwan should also be prepared for the worst possible scenario. Thus, Taiwan must not only work to improve relations with mainland China, but must also maintain stable relations with countries that promote freedom and democracy and can help ensure its necessary power of self defense, Wu said.

In response to Hu’s talk, Shin-Yuan Lai, head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, said the Taiwan government and most Taiwanese people would not accept the “one country, two systems” formula that is in place in Hong Kong and Macau. “That is not Taiwan’s policy, since the ROC is a country of independent sovereignty,” she said, referring to the island’s official name, the Republic of China.

Overseas Chinese critic Cao Changqing said that China’s military parade sent a warning to the Western world. As history teaches, an authoritarian country will become a threat to the world once it gains military strength, Cao pointed out.

U.S. Defense Minister Robert Gates has criticized China’s steadily increasing military budget and lack of transparency in military development. He also said that China’s increasing military capability was a threat to U.S. naval and air bases in the Pacific.