The Beijing Center on Wednesday was a deliberately intimidated weaponry exhibition designed to send the message that Xi Jinping’s vision of a new world order with China will be supported by high-tech weapons that, in many cases, seem to be ahead of their rivals.
Although a lot of post-defile attention focuses on the new long-range nuclear weapons-such as the Intercontinental DF-61 ballistic missile-which can be even more important in the long run are weapons such as new laser air defense systems mounted on trucks and ships.
If these are already implanted in number in the forces of the Popular Liberation Army (PLA), as China has indicated in the pre-disinal press conferences, may represent real problems for any opponent’s ability to wage Chinese military movements in the region.
But there are caveats, and it is not yet time to consider the ELP the world’s main military force.
This is what we learned from today’s parade.
Highlights of the Parade
The plane had a remarkable amount of equipment on Beijing’s most famous Avenue, Eternal Peace Avenue – so much so that it was difficult to focus attention on a gun before the following was.
But some certainly stood out, including the DF-61, a huge intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) transported in an eight-axle truck, which would be the first new ICBM of the PLA Rocket Forces since the introduction of DF-41 in a military parade in 2019.
Missiles with hypersonic sliding vehicles (HGVS) were also highlighted.
HGVs can carry warheads at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound, with irregular flight trajectories that can make antimysis defenses difficult.
An impressive variety of drones has also been on display, from non-manned extra-range submarines to aircraft that can fly as “loyal wing” to the state-of-the-art stealing fighters from the PLA Air Force.
Land drones, some armed with machine guns, some suitable for deminating or logistics, also integrated the formations.
And then there was the lasers.
A laser weapon is seen during a military parade that marks the 80th anniversary of the victory over Japan and the end of World War II at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on September 3, 2025. Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images
The plane showed two versions: one huge, intended for naval air defense, and another, smaller and mounted on a truck, to protect the troops on the ground.
The lasers belong to a class called “directed energy weapons”, which can also include high power microwave systems. Instead of using projectiles for kinetic destruction, these weapons depend on electromagnetic energy to disable a target through heat, the disturbance of internal electrical systems or the blinding of sensors such as optical and radar.
Directed energy weapons are more economical than kinetic weapons, with a laser shot costing only one fraction of the price of a bullet or missile. Logistics is also simpler as it is not necessary to transport heavy metal projectiles next to the weapon, only its power source.
An advantage in industrial capacity
The huge volume of displayed military equipment shows that China has industrial power to support its words and, perhaps eventually, impose Xi’s view on the world.
It is the type of industrial capacity that the United States mobilized to overcome World War II, whose end was said that Wednesday’s parade celebrated.
But while the US industry marked the end of the axis powers 80 years ago, America does not have the ability to produce weaponry in numbers comparable to those of China.
“What Chinese are demonstrating here is the ability to develop advanced military capabilities by themselves, implement them operationally and do so faster than what you see in the West,” Malcolm Davis, a defense strategy analyst at the Australian Institute of Strategic Policy (ASPI), said. “And also do so in greater volume, in terms of the simple number of weapons implemented.”
Numbers that favor Beijing
An analysis published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on the eve of the parade showed some of the mathematical calculations in favor of Beijing.
China’s defense spending has increased by 13 times in the last 30 years, according to the CSIS report, prepared by Matthew Funaiole and Brian Hart, CSIS China Power Project researchers.
Although Beijing still spends only about a third of what the US spends in defense, it has rapidly reducing this difference, halving it in the last 12 years, according to the report.
But at the regional level, differences in defense spending are very large.
“China largely dominates its neighbors, spending five times more in defense than Japan and almost seven times more than South Korea-two US key allies in the region,” said the CSIS report.
The most sharp difference from the US is at the naval level.
China is expected to have 48% more combat ships than the US until 2030, the report says.
One and that analyzed the history of the naval wars, concluded that the largest fleet almost always wins.
Some claim that the US can maintain the advantage through technologies such as artificial intelligence drones. But Wednesday’s military parade has shown that this can be a false hope.
Pla formations were full of drones – to combat on the ground, air and sea.
“The non -manned systems that Chinese are showing today are significantly advanced. They seem to be, in some respects, more advanced than what we see in the West, and are in operational service,” said Davis of ASPI.
And these are only for offensive combat functions.
The defense against drones, through the previously mentioned lasers, for example, may also be favoring Beijing.
“We are basically watching what the Chinese describe as intelligent war,” said Ankit Panda, senior researcher at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace. “There is a large amount of autonomous abilities, network abilities, modern 21st century combat systems.”
The value of the experience
Although the formations that paraded for Beijing and in the skies on Wednesday have provided impressive images, gathering them in a coordinated combat force requires much more than what was visible.
“China, notoriously, has not fought in a conflict of high intensity itself, probably since the Korea War, certainly since the Sino-Vietnamese war (in 1979). So what does this tell us about its ability to prevail? As we have learned from Russia’s experience in Ukraine, the number of resources cannot simply be said,” Panda said.
However, by way of comparison, it is difficult to contest the capacity of the US Armed Forces to reach the target with firepower.
The US attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in June, when seven B-2 stealing bombers launched 14 of the world’s most powerful conventional weapons over the target without any response fire, is difficult to imagine in today’s China capabilities.
The air squad that keeps the flag flying over Tiananmen Square during a great concentration to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Chinese people’s resistance victory against Japanese aggression and the World Antifascist War on September 3, 2025 in Beijing, China. VCG/AP
On the one hand, the Popular Liberation Army Air Force has not yet shown a stealthy bomber from the B-2 category, although it is said that one is under development. Even so, the next generation of US bombers, the B-21, is already in the prototype phase.
Therefore, there is some caution in the community of analysts, even after the impressive demonstration in Beijing on Wednesday.
The renovated Major-General of the Australian Army Mick Ryan said he believes the US remains the world’s most powerful military force, “but probably for a smaller margin than it has been in recent decades,” China reduces distance.
“The Chinese army is technologically very sophisticated … But most importantly, almost everything it needs is manufactured internally,” he told CNN, adding that this means that Beijing cannot be “coerced” by foreign arms suppliers.
However, he pointed out that none of the weapons displayed was tested in combat.
“Impressive in appearance, the parades are not a good indicator of military effectiveness,” said Ryan.
