China says it will highlight joint combat groups in next month’s military parade

Wu Zeke, deputy head of the warfare bureau at the Central Military Commission’s Joint Staff Department, told reporters on Wednesday there would be “combat-oriented joint formations” made up of land combat, maritime combat, air defence and missile defence groups, as well as information warfare, unmanned combat, rear support and strategic strike groups.

He said aircraft flying over Tiananmen Square during the parade on September 3 would be in “modular” and “systematic” formations.

Wu Zeke, deputy head of the warfare bureau at the Central Military Commission’s Joint Staff Department (centre), briefs reporters on preparations for the parade. Photo: Xinhua

“Advanced early warning and command aircraft, fighter jets, bombers, transport aircraft and others” will take part in the event – many of them highly anticipated “star” weaponry, some of which will be seen in public for the first time, according to Wu.

A major overhaul of the PLA initiated by President Xi Jinping in 2015 has sought to streamline its command structure, with five theatre commands set up to enable joint operations across the military branches, while a modernisation drive has also been under way.

Wu said the parade and march-past was expected to run for 70 minutes.

But he did not say if war veterans from the Kuomintang – the Communist Party’s rival during the Chinese civil war that ended in 1949 – would attend the event as they did 10 years ago, when the last Victory Day parade was held.

South China Morning Post