The rumbling had not yet faded away when a sharp howling began roaring across the sky. A group of ninety-four bombers, attack aircraft and fighters flew over Tian'anmen in formation. Everyone raised their eyes to the heavens to admire this last show of the parade, a poetic conclusion to a majestic performance.
The airplanes flew above Tian'anmen exactly as Qin Jinwei had scheduled, although it was a shame that the thin wisps of clouds had not also obeyed his wishes and disappeared. It seemed as if the clouds veiled both the airplanes and their colorful smoke-trails. The conclusion of this most splendid final act was not perfect yet it also gave the people room for imagination.
Deng Xiaoping's head was craned to look at the sky. Holding his hand above his eyes to shield them from the sun as he looked up he also directed the gaze of those beside him by pointing … He was able to see farther and more clearly than others and it seemed as if his eyes were fixed on a destination as yet unseen by anyone else. He continued to look up for a long while, watching until tens of thousands of peace doves and colorful balloons rose up into the sky to where the fighters had just flown past …
The senior aids at Deng Xiaoping's side in Tian'anmen Square were also watching attentively. The generals still wore their old-fashioned Dacron uniforms, much like most of the soldiers in China at that time. Placed within the context of a worldwide history of military parades, this phenomenon was both interesting and rare. It was a clear sign that China and its army were in the process of replacing the old with the new.
Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission, Yang Shangkun was also gazing up at the sky. His smile was calm and reserved. As the man responsible for actually organizing all the important operations within the military, he remained full of contemplation even at this most exciting moment.
The night before, while the final decorating and cleaning tasks were being attended to, the Military Affairs Section of the People's Liberation Army General Staff Department received a call from the General Office of the Central Military Commission: "Vice-Chairman Yang wants to read the 'plan'. Please send it here immediately."
Was it the plan for the next day's parade? No, it was a plan for the reduction and reorganization of the armed forces. He re-read it several times although he had already met with the Standing Committee of Central Military Commission several times in order to examine the policy.
It was as if this parade was a farewell to history …
2
ON NOVEMBER 1, one month after the National Day parade, the commanders and commissars of the Navy, Air Force, Second Artillery Corps and the eleven military regions all gathered in the Conference Room of Beijing's Jingxi Hotel for a meeting of the Military Commission. Deng Xiaoping greeted them all calmly, sat down and delivered a speech that lasted nearly ninety minutes. He spoke in a jocular tone yet he was talking about shocking strategic decisions. Without a doubt, this speech is crucial literature for the study of the history of the People's Liberation Army. That aside, the skilful delivery and style of Deng's address meant that this speech was a wonderful, emotionally rich piece of prose.
"Where to start?" Deng Xiaoping looked amiably and warmly towards the senior generals.
"Let's start by discussing the national parade. I don't mean to be critical. It wasn't bad, and was highly praised both at home and abroad. In addition, one of my international friends recently spoke very highly of it.
"But now I'm going to say that there was a problem … Having an eighty-year-old man review the troops: that's the problem."
The eighty-year-old chairman of the Central Military Commission had touched upon the most sensitive issue for those attending the meeting; that was, the aging of the senor leaders of the army. He therefore turned the conversation towards the necessity for not only structural reform of the military, but also for the further reduction and reorganization of the armed forces. At this meeting, he made the stunning assertion that for the next several decades, there would be no more global conflicts. The guiding precepts of our army, "fight the battle early and violently, and engage in nuclear war" , were radically changed by this declaration and Deng steered the army onto the path of peacetime military development.
As a result, Deng Xiaoping suggested that they demobilize one million troops!
This marshal, famous in the world for his clear judgment, decisiveness, firmness and his ability to deal with the most complex problems, conveyed a sense of the utmost determination to every general present that day. "This is an unpleasant task! But I'll take it on; let's not leave this impossible task to the next chairman of the Central Military Commission," he said.
He spoke with the problem of the aging high-level leadership in mind, but these words were also appropriate for the issues he faced regarding military reform and restructure.
Both internationally and domestically, disarmament was not a new topic.
The United Nations had emerged from the experiences and disasters of the Second World War, and from its inception listed disarmament as one of its basic slogans and ultimate aims. It was universally recognized by the international community that disarmament was essential for the security and happiness of humankind in the modern era. The amount of negotiations, meetings, plans and institutes aimed at disarmament since 1945 was bewildering. Everyone had been calling for disarmament for the past forty years. However, as a result, the more armies "disarmed" , the more troops they had, and the fiercer the arms race became. For the world's superpowers, "disarmament" had become a political trick; a curtain pulled across their own participation in the arms race. They were dragging an unwilling world towards a dangerous abyss.