On the eve of today's 50th anniversary celebrations, leaders of communist China displayed an obsessive concern with security, both for the parade through the centre of Beijing this morning and for the future, writes Conor O'Clery. The Premier, Mr Zhu Rongji, warned at a Beijing reception last night that stability was the key to the success of communist China, saying that "historical experience tells us that without stability, nothing can be done".
China's President and Communist Party leader, Mr Jiang Zem in, alerted cadres yesterday ag ainst "infiltration and sabotage by foreign hostile forces" into China, and said the authorities must "isolate and deal a blow" to activists pursuing independence for Chinese regions.
The official with the heaviest responsibility for ensuring that nothing mars today's mammoth parade marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Beijing Mayor Liu Qi, pledged nothing would go wrong. "Security work should top the agenda," he said, "we must all be vigilant."
He has ordered extreme measures to avoid possible protests from the usual suspects, ranging from Tibetan "splittists" and human rights protesters, to members of the banned Falun Gong sect, pro-democracy activists and old people who have not received state benefits. As a precaution, pensioners have been paid long-overdue government subsidies to prevent their grievances surfacing at the anniversary.
Sniffer dogs searched foliage along the route for bombs or saboteurs and manhole covers were locked. To foil any individual anti-communist exhibitions, the windows of hotels and office buildings facing the eastern section of Chang'an Avenue next to Tiananmen Gate, were sealed off last night, even where guests had paid thousands of dollars for a good vantage point. The Beijing Hotel, near Tiananmen Square, has told guests they are not allowed to be in rooms facing Chang'an Avenue.
The city came to a halt yesterday as the parade route was closed for final preparations, and the capital will remain paralysed today.
Mr Zhu told a reception on the eve of the parade in which China's armed forces and 500,000 people will take part, "we must treasure a hundred times more our hard-won unity and stability".
Speaking in the Great Hall of the People, as unseasonable rain poured down outside, the man credited with leading China's economic reform programme warned that the road ahead would not be smooth but that they would triumph over adversity through adherence to the party thought, and "promote a great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."
Earlier, Mr Zhu surprised a gathering of business executives by accusing the US of making war between China and Taiwan inevitable, because US policy support for the estranged island had emboldened Taiwan's President, Mr Lee Teng-hui, to declare in July he would only trade with China on the basis that they constituted equal states.
"Sooner or later it will lead to an armed resolution of the question because the Chinese people will become impatient," Mr Zhu said, according to a participant.
Nationalist troops fled to Taiwan after their defeat by the Red Army in China in 1949 and Beijing regards the island as a breakaway province. It is trying to persuade Taiwan to unify with the mainland China under a one-country-two-systems policy, and saw President Lee Teng-hui's statement as a lurch towards independence.
China and Russia will hold joint naval exercises in October as part of celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of communist China. The exercises will be the first between the two giant neighbours who split ideologically in 1960 but have drawn closer since the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.