China marks 60 years with spectacle of power

But the overwhelming security controls highlighted a central paradox of present-day China.

The government claims it has never been stronger and closer to its people, yet appears afraid of even small incidents that could tarnish its authority.

Even as the displays celebrated the People's Republic, security cordons prevented residents from seeing the parade, with central Beijing emptied of all passers-by.

"It's not really for us ordinary people, is it?" said Wang Chenggong, a migrant worker from rural central Henan province trying to watch a TV near a crowded streetside stall.

Residents on the parade route were banned from peeking out their windows.

"Go home! Leave now! Go watch TV at home!" a portly policeman yelled through a bullhorn at a street crowd gathering miles from the square.

After the military parade, floats lauding China's history, achievements and regions passed by.

They included a farm produce float with two model cows; one showing China's space programme with a lunar orbiter; and an Olympic Games display with a model of the Bird's Nest stadium.

China is a country of yawning social contradictions, with hundreds of millions of farming families living in dirt-floor hardship despite the rapid economic growth, and restive ethnic minorities in the western Tibet and Xinjiang regions.

Today these disparities were dissolved in the displays of material abundance, ethnic unity and political control.

Neat rows of marchers waving pompoms accompanied towering mobile portraits of China's successive Communist Party leaders, ending with President Hu, appearing strikingly slim and youthful.

The government even claimed it ensured clear skies by beating back rain with an arsenal of airborne chemicals.