Beijing 60th Anniversary - Lock up your pigeons!

Beijing 60th Anniversary - Lock up your pigeons!

That is the order that has gone out from the Beijing city government, as the authorities blanket the capital with the strictest security regime imposed here for decades in the run-up to tomorrow’s military parade marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of “New China.”

No pigeon flying, nor balloons, is permitted within a 125 mile radius of Tiananmen Square until the end of the anniversary holiday on Oct. 8. Even kites, common ornaments in the Beijing sky, have been banned.

No one has been told why these measures have been put into place; perhaps the government fears a well-trained pigeon might drop something on Hu Jintao’s head. Though one thing is for sure, Hu Jintao won’t be attending the celebration. It will more likely be his double, whilst Hu watches the celebrations from the comfort of his own home with the rest of us.

In fact rumour has it that the ‘celebrations’ as it were, won’t even be live. Today is the 30th of September, and they probably already have made the film that the world will see tomorrow, having pre-recorded the parade of tanks and dances during the rehearsals earlier this week

Other officials are nervous about threats to the proceedings closer to the pavement. “Dog owners should try to cut back on dog-walking during the holidays so as to avoid any disturbance” reads one wall poster in the central Beijing district of Dongcheng. Walking your dog anywhere near the parade route is forbidden.

The Chinese government is making a very big deal indeed out of its 60th birthday. The parade will show off China’s latest military hardware, normally shrouded in the sort of secrecy that now surrounds the exact nature of the entire 60th show.
Ordinary citizens have been kept well away from night-time rehearsals of the parade. Indeed they will be kept away from the event itself, and people living in apartments overlooking the route have been warned not to watch the parade from their balconies, nor even to open their windows.

We have been told, though, that the firework display will be twice as large as last year’s Olympic spectacular, and the municipal government is trying to conjure a festive air by decorating Beijing’s avenues with red paper lanterns and brightly coloured bunting. More and more private cars are sprouting patriotic little Chinese flags.

Less convivial are the black-uniformed patrols of SWAT police, sometimes accompanied by large dogs, who can be seen at railway stations and on street corners, keeping an eye on things.

Beijing is on the highest security alert allowed outside wartime, and it shows. Postal services have been delayed, as every package arriving in the capital undergoes a special screening; subway commuters have to put up with even more of a rush-hour crush as each of their bags goes through an X-ray machine. Plain clothes and uniformed policemen guard the city’s bridges.

But, after 60 years of the People’s Republic of China, the big question is, who are the celebrations for? - If people can’t leave their houses, if people are advised not to travel or see friends, then is this merely an extraordinary display as opposed to a celebration? Perhaps yes it seems, parading tanks and fancy top-notch weapons is more a message to its own people in China’s autonomous regions and the West. Breaking the peace shall not be allowed. And no matter what, tomorrow, China shall have its perfect celebration.