Flags of Our Grandsons


Xi Jinping had his third miliatry parade in less than 3 years after he took the helm at the remote Zhurihe military base in Inner Mongolia. Although the PLA showed off newest weapons with the intent to remind the rest of the world that it is a formidable force now, its intentionally taking place thousands away from the dispute escalated Tibet regions and later clarification of no intention to target at any country at press conference uncovered its uneasiness and lack of confidence.

This Chinese tweet joked that the parade was more than 4000 kilometres away from the battlefield. If the Indian Armies would like to fight with our PLA, the high road tolls would bankrupt them first.

But the most embarassing part from this explicit violation of laws and protocols. According to Article 15 of the National Flag Law of the PRC, “when the national flag and other flags are held in any parade, the national flag shall be in front of other flags.” The PLA’s holding the Party flag in front of the national flag, this behaviour is not only stupid, but also unprofessional.Since Devil lies in details,how can you expect an army without respect to protocols and attention to details to prevail?
I have made it very clear almost more than 2 years ago that the PLA belongs to the Party instead of China under Jason Chen’s answer to Why does the PLA defend the interests of the Communist Party of China over the well-being of Chinese citizens? It is relieved to find more and more Chinese are now aware of these facts by mocking and ridiculing this kind of stupid goose steps:

This tweet joked that a rookie asked his company commander “in the parade the Party flag took the lead, does it mean that in a war Party members should go first?” His commander cursed him “F***, you should go first if this is my order.” The rookie refuted” but I am neither a Party member or a Youth Colleague member (or Young Pioneer), how about I hold a white flag?”

This tweet joked that the eunuch told Caixi Dowager that he was deeply impressed by the recent military parade and he believed that the military power of Qing Dynaster was the first in Asia and second in the world. Caixi sneered “ they are only good at goose steps and folding up quilt, but useless when there is a war.” The eunuch was surprised “if you know the truth, why spend so much money on them.” “ Although those formalisms are not sufficien to fight with foreign enemies, they are still enough to scare Chinese people!” (it is not a joke that before the Battle of Yalu River the navy of Qing Dynasty did have a great military parade. Will the history repeat?)

This tweet said it was very scared to know that the PLA claimed this parade has no intent to target at any other country. It seems that they are only targeting at Chinese people. Oh, my poor child, it is too late for you to know the Party secret.

This tweet claimed that on Feb 14th, 1944, Xinhua Daily, the incumbent mouthpiece of the CCP published an editorial named “the Nationalization of Armed Forces Is the Cardinal Principle of A New China”, in which it claimed that a Party army was only under Fascisim and Chiang Kai-shek’s reactionary regimes. Now Xinhua News Agency says the PLA shall be loyal to the Party and under its command. What a great irony!(discussions on nationalization of the PLA, you can find more under Jason Chen’s answer to Why are calls to nationalize the People’s Liberation Army (军队国家化) in China still banned and sensitive?)
It is more interesting to note that at the same time, the propaganda department had gone all out to promote the film the Founding of An Army at the same time, including issuing orders to all theatre lines for mandatory showing this film in their cinemas, and banning comments on the most influential film review site Douban(so as not to embarrassed by too many negative reviews).

The frustrated and angry audience had chosen to vote with their feetin this weekend . They turned to the Wolf Warrior 2 instead, making the box office of Founding of An Army disastrously lower than expected.

However, these unpleasant epidsodes should not have bothered our Emperor Xi. A dictator is always obsessed with creating grandiose scenes, in which he could stand on the palace wall to witness a large amount of guards of honor saluting to him, so as to satisfy his illusionary ambitions. At the same, it could impress the partipants and audience with the amzaing effect of group exercises, make them losed in the group psycholangy creaetd by this magnificent performance art and forget about their individual egoes.
Moreover, Fang Changlong, the incumbent Vice Chairman of Central Military Commission of the CCP and commander-in-chief of this parade used the word “Supreme Commander” and “Supreme Leader” to call Xi.

These titles were only used by Mao in the past, even not including Deng Xiaoping, let alone Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao.
It seems that Kim Jung Un is the only other leader in the world can enjoy the similar titles now. Welcome to the elite club, Mr Xi.
