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This is also shown in a series of new concepts put forward by the People’s Liberation Army recently, including expanding the “national interest frontier” and ensuring “greater peripheral security.”

Under this security concept the PLA has included the Persian Gulf as part of its “greater periphery.” This pursuit of greater peripheral security has become the national rationale for China to proceed with the building of aircraft carriers.

“The missions of the PLA should be extended to wherever China’s national interest frontier lies,” the PLA Daily openly asserted recently.

The National Day military parade also demonstrates that the Chinese armed forces possess the capability and the ambition to engage in global nuclear attacks. On display were newly developed cruise missiles with precision strike capability, giving China greatly enhanced capability to launch precision strikes upon neighboring countries.

China’s array of strategic ballistic missiles and cruise missiles far surpasses the military needs for “addressing the Taiwan issue,” both in terms of effective range and stockpile of weapons.

China has developed its military industry much faster than Russia. Still, a large percentage of the weapons that made their appearance in this military parade have traces of cloning from Russian systems, particularly the airborne systems.

For example, China used the Russian Il-76 transport as the platform to develop its airborne warning and control system, or AWACS. Its so-called indigenous J-11B fighter regiment is in fact cloned from Russia’s Su-27SK fighters; China and Russia have had a lasting dispute on this issue over the years.

In terms of ground forces equipment, the 122-mm creeper self-propelled gun, the 155-mm creeper self-propelled gun, the 300-mm multiple rocket-launcher system, the 120-mm creeper self-propelled mortar gun, as well as the chassis of the T99G1 main battle tank, the HQ-9 ground-to-air missile launcher and the Type 97 creeper infantry fighting vehicle turret, all have very strong Russian characteristics.

One could almost say the parade was virtually a cloned version of a military parade in Moscow’s Red Square.

It appears that the 112th Heavy Mechanized Division and the 113th Light Mechanized Division of the No. 38 Group Army under the Beijing Military Region played the key roles in the parade. The 127th Light Mechanized Infantry Division of the No. 54 Group Army and the 1st Amphibious Mechanized Infantry Division of the No. 1 Group Army were also the mainstay troops in the military parade.

Among the ground forces weapons on display in the military review were T-99G and T-96G main battle tanks. In less than 10 years, these MBTs have undergone at least three major upgrades.

It was not a surprise that the ground forces and naval variants of long-range combat vehicles – Chinese versions of advanced amphibious assault vehicles – were put on display for the first time. These AAAVs were developed at a very fast pace during a time when cross-Strait tensions were high and China was preparing for a “military struggle against Taiwan.”

Internally, the two vehicles were designated as Type 05, which means they were first tested around 2005. The Chinese AAAVs are mainstay equipment intended for beyond-vision landing operations. The army variant of the Chinese AAAV was obviously specifically developed for the 1st Amphibious Mechanized Division of the No. 1 Group Army and the 124th Amphibious Mechanized Division of the No. 42 Group Army.

The VN1 8x8 wheeled infantry fighting vehicle that made an appearance in the parade has a twin-seat turret, with 1+1 HJ73D anti-tank missiles mounted on either side of the turret. The first combat unit to receive similar wheeled IFVs is supposed to be the 113th Light Mechanized Infantry Division of the No. 38 Group Army, or another equivalent combat troop.

The Type 05 155-mm 52x creeper self-propelled gun-howitzer, the 6x6 wheeled 120-mm howitzer, 300-mm 05/AR2 multiple rocket-launcher system, the HQ-9 surface-to-air missile, and a naval version of the three-celled YJ-62 coast-to-ship missile also made their appearances at the parade. The latter has only been fitted on two 052C DDGs.

The naval and army versions of the Chinese AAAV have different artillery systems. The naval version uses a 30-mm speed gun, while the army version is armed with a 105-mm assault gun.

In less than 10 years, all the above have gone through the process from development to operational deployment, which underscores that China has greatly increased its investment in the armed forces and its capability to engage in long-range projection of military power.

Among these efforts, the PLA Second Artillery Force, the Air Force, the Navy, the Airborne Corps, as well as electronic warfare, information warfare and army special operations forces, have received priority in terms of the acquisition of new weapons equipment.

As such, the appearance of an electronic confrontation system, communications system and unmanned aerial vehicle at the military review was clearly aimed at underscoring the importance of information warfare and unmanned battlefield operations. One 6x6 wheeled armoured vehicle specifically developed for the armed police was also shown, meaning that the research in non-warfare military actions within the Chinese armed forces has been in actual application in recent years. At the same time, the extent of internal control has also been upgraded due to the outbreak of riots in Tibet and the ethnic conflicts in Xinjiang.

Of critical importance is the introduction of what can be called a Type 09 cruise missile at the preview. The training mock-up of this cruise missile was unveiled as early as 2005, therefore it is not a newly deployed system. Given its measurements, this strategic cruise missile appears to be basically the same as the Soviet Union’s H-55 in size.

A conservative estimate of the effective range of the Chinese cruise missiles is 1500-2000 km. This would cover the whole region of Okinawa in Japan. This is also the main reason why the cruise missile has appeared in Jiangxi and Guangxi provinces. Depending on the location where the cruise missile is deployed, it can cover the whole of Japan’s Kyushu and Shikoku islands, and part of the main island of Honshu. The whole of the Korean peninsula will also be within its striking range.

As for the guidance system, the author can basically exclude the possibility that it uses a global positioning system. Most likely, the cruise missile uses terrain contour matching, or TERCOM, plus a terminal guidance system, which requires very complicated preparation work. But for China the TERCOM is comparatively more secure, as it is not under the control of the U.S. GPS system.

In the early 1990s, China illegally smuggled from Ukraine six Soviet-made H/Kh-55 cruise missiles, a deal that has already been acknowledged by the now democratic government of Ukraine. Type 09 uses 8X8 wheeled vehicles.

Furthermore, a surprising 16 units of DF-31 and DF-31A long-range strategic missiles, or ICBMs, were put on display. At the 1999 National Day military parade, only three DF-31 long-range ballistic missiles made their appearance.

The appearance of these missiles is to give the United States an implicit message that batches of this long-range strategic missile, capable of striking the U.S. homeland, are in operational service, thus giving China an effective and powerful deterrence.

The DF-11B, DF-15B and DF-21C short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles have all undergone upgrades, with a very clear objective of enhancing their strike accuracy and effective range. For instance, the upgraded variant of the DF-15B short- range ballistic missile has four control fins on the warhead for terminal ballistic correction, and the missile seems to be able to use different types of warheads.

The upgraded version of the DF-21C medium-range ballistic missile seems to have been equipped with a new engine, hence the length of the DF-21C is longer than that of the DF-21. The design concept of the DF-21C is closer to the Soviet Union’s SS-22 medium-range ballistic missile, which uses a more compact launch tube.

The launch vehicle has changed from the towed truck of the baseline version DF-21 to a self-propelled vehicle, with much enhanced cross-field capability. The launch vehicle uses a 10x10 wheeled transport truck.

A priority in the upgrade was to add a terminal guidance system on the DF-21C and at the same time to reinforce the penetration capability to as to confront the U.S.-Japan theater missile defense program. As a result, the DF-21C’s warhead is now equipped with four control fins for terminal stage posture correction. The DF-21C is one of China’s key ballistic missiles targeted at India and Japan.

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(Andrei Chang is editor-in-chief of Kanwa Defense Review Monthly, registered in Toronto, Canada.)