KEY POINTS:
Our Troops Toward the Sun, an exhibition which opened to the public in China this week, allows visitors to drive a tank, see Chairman Mao Zedong's punchbag or check out a model of a hydrogen bomb.
They can even examine in detail the new uniforms of the People's
Liberation Army, the world's biggest army.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the PLA and China is celebrating the birthday with a stirring exhibition. Day one was packed with visitors, including children getting to grips with anti-aircraft machineguns and dozens of people queuing up to learn what it feels like to fire a warship's gun.
With 2.3 million soldiers, 800,000 reservists and a People's Armed Police of 1.5 million, the PLA has no equal for manpower.
Since its foundation, the PLA has been transformed from a raggle-taggle group of guerrilla fighters into a powerful military machine and the anniversary has been greeted with much pride and nationalistic fervour.
A surprise inclusion in the exhibition is Lin Biao, a Defence Minister who helped defeat Japanese invaders and routed Nationalist troops in China's civil war. He is honoured as one of the "Ten Marshals" who founded the PLA, even though he died a traitor in a mysterious plane crash for apparently plotting to assassinate Communist leader Mao Zedong.
"With objective thinking, we decided to put the picture of Lin Biao together with the other nine marshals," said researcher Jiang Tingyu. "We have to show history as it was."
In the area outside the huge exhibition space, visitors photographed each other with mobile phone cameras in front of 20 armoured vehicles and various artillery, including a 5.8mm gun, a tank, an anti-aircraft gun, missiles and attack bombers.
Diaramas showing military housing and uniforms were on display, most prominent of which was a beach invasion, which definitely has the renegade province of Taiwan in mind. The focus of all China's military development is on Taiwan, which mainland China has said it would attack if the self-ruled island ever tries to declare independence.
To coincide with the anniversary, local media have been running stories offering an insight into the life of soldiers in the famously secretive army. They are still not allowed to use mobile phones or iPods in many cases and they still often grow their own food in the grounds of the barracks.
Soldiers have found the introduction of limited internet access on the bases has allowed them to make their voices better heard. The exhibition highlights how China's armed forces "make a valuable contribution to world peace".
China has sent about 5600 personnel on 15 UN peacekeeping missions since 1990, contributing the most troops among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
However, the Pentagon sees something more sinister in the streamlining and modernisation of the Chinese Army. A report earlier this year said the PLA was growing in sophistication and technological expertise, and that the growth of the Chinese military could contribute to tension in Asia, despite Beijing's oft-repeated mantra about its "peaceful rise".
Beijing has co-operated with Washington on military issues, notably on North Korea, but there remains a lot of distrust between the two countries.
China insists it needs to modernise its military to avoid falling further behind the US. It said it would boost defence spending by 17.8 per cent to US$45 billion ($57 billion) this year, though the US says it could be as high as US$129 billion.
As Beijing is quick to points out, this compares with Washington's defence spend of about US$500 billion, not including Iraq and Afghanistan.
There was keen interest in the PLA's new uniforms, which are called "07 Style". The military has also been given new fatigues, which are designed with "digital camouflage", computer-generated camouflage patterns designed to simulate natural environments.
The red band, which has featured on the big-brimmed green army hats for decades, has disappeared from the new uniforms, a change that some have opposed.
- INDEPENDENT
