Anna Jones

OK let's pause a moment to draw breath, and if you're just joining us, welcome. We're bringing you live coverage of the massive celebrations taking place in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China - or 70 years of China as a country run by the Communist Party.

China has good reason to celebrate - it has gone from being a poor, undeveloped nation to the second-largest economy in the world, and from being almost wholly shunned to being a major player on the world stage.

But there are millions who will not be celebrating China's rise - among them those wrongly jailed under a justice system with a close to 100% conviction rate, the more than a million Uighurs detained in what China says are "training camps", and the relatives of people who have died resisting communist rule, not least those who died in the 1989 Tianamen Square uprising, right where today's celebrations are taking place.

Read more: Searching for truth in China's hidden camps

John Sudworth
China Correspondent

A massive security operation has seen barriers, manned by police officers, put up across dozens of roads. On the edge of the wide cordon covering much of the city centre small crowds have gathered.

From here they can only see the fly-by - craning their necks and holding phones aloft, a long way from the tanks and marching troops on the parade route where their country's history is being celebrated.

Alexander Neill
International Institute for Strategic Studies

Following my earlier comments about the PLA's drive for intelligent warfare, I was struck by the appearance for the first time of two new sleek, futuristic and frankly rather menacing looking unmanned aerial vehicles, and one large unmanned underwater vehicle.

Intriguingly, neither of these were marked with designators. The WZ-8 is described as a high altitude drone and is believed to be a supersonic reconnaissance and command and control platform. The other "Sharp Sword" bat wing shaped stealth drone is believed to be capable of aircraft carrier launch.

On the naval front what appears to be a new underwater drone labelled HSU001 was on show - described as being able to mount deep water reconnaissance.

These kind of technologies are "leap frog" platforms, demonstrating that China can match the US stealth and hypersonic capabilities in very short periods of time. This begs the question of how China has acquired the kind of military technologies that are the most highly classified in the US military inventory.

As the people's parade gets under way, let's quickly recap some of that hardware that's been on show.

Image source, CGTN

Image source, CGTN

Image source, CGTN

Fan Wang
BBC Chinese

Image source, Reuters

Growing up in China, National Day was always a big part of life. Not only did it mean a week-long holiday, the exuberant celebrations across the country reminded everyone how lucky we were to be living in the "best period of all times".

When I was still in school, this time of the year was marked with the likes of choir competitions and speech contests. The topic was always the same – "I love my country".

This has been the 15th National Day military parade since the People’s Republic of China was founded 70 years ago. Unlike China-watchers who keep track of China’s new, high-tech weapons, the Chinese people are always obsessed with how soldiers lift their legs to the same level and march with precision. It is a display of the discipline of the army and a reminder of the growing power of the country.

The civilian parade started with a small child singing: "Today is your birthday my motherland. In the morning I flew a group of pigeons flying over mountains to bring you an olive leaf. Best wishes to you on your birthday my motherland."

The crowds then sang: "Without the Communist Party, there would be no new China." They're carrying a truly enormous picture of Mao through the square.

The big guns and military might done, now a colourful display has taken over Tiananmen Square. Hundreds of young people are waving long red ribbons, and yellow flowers chanting "Long Live China".

Bicycles are being ridden around and girls are dancing in flower crowns.

Alexander Neill
International Institute for Strategic Studies

Image source, CGTN

This is the latest road-mobile DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missile, which Chinese analysts say is able to target any part of the globe.

It is said to carry a warhead payload of 10 multiple, independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRV). A MIRV warhead can be guided towards a specific target, so one could potentially hit 10 different targets over a wide area.

Here's some of the military paraphernalia we've seen so far today:

• Amphibious fighting vehicles
• Anti tank missiles
• Gyrocopters
• Ship-to-ship missiles
• Ship-based air defence weapons
• Surface-to-air missiles
• Early warning radar
• Telecommunications and electronic jamming vehicles
• High altitude and sea-diving drones
• Hypersonic and cruise missiles
• DF-26 missiles, capable of conventional and nuclear war heads, and JL-2 nuclear-capable missiles
• And support vehicles like navigation vehicles and medical care mobile hospitals.

The missiles are on the move - and there are lot of them. And they are big. Among them are China's intercontinential ballistic missiles, capable of striking anywhere in the world. And most of them are capable of carrying nuclear weapons... although they're probably not doing so today.

Xi Jinping is also waving as planes fly overhead in formation, leaving jaunty coloured smoke in their wake.

Footage here from the parade, as President Xi Jinping did a lap of Tiananmen Square inspecting the tens of thousand of assembled troops.

Alexander Neill
International Institute for Strategic Studies

Commentators are placing emphasis on intelligent warfare, AI, quantum computing, big data and the internet of things, and linking this with the Chinese army's new Strategic Support Force.

When he was leader, Jiang Zemin called for China to be able to fight short, high intensity wars under "informationised" conditions - meaning China's military needed to embrace the digital revolution. Today's parade is emphasising that China has made big strides towards high-tech warfare.

There's also a lot of attention today on three new items confirmed on display: a large UUV (underwater drone), the supersonic targeting drone the WZ-8 and the Sharp Sword stealth drone.

Image source, Yitsing Wang

Many residents of Beijing’s hutongs were eagerly waiting for the country’s biggest military parade. The BBC caught up with some of them this week.

Ms Feng, 81, said she took part in the National Day rallies in the 1950s and saw then-Premier Zhou Enlai. But she couldn’t go to Tiananmen Square today because of her health.

A nurse during the Korean War, Ms Feng said: “Stability is the most important thing for a country.”

“The country has improved in every aspect in the past seven decades,” she said. “I get a 5,000 yuan ($700; £570) pension every month. This would have been unimaginable in the past.”

Heather Chen
Singapore

Image source, AFP

I just refreshed my Sina Weibo page (China's popular micro-blogging platform) and surprise, surprise: Tiananmen's military show has soared to the top of its trending topics. Engagement is reaching the millions.

National Day military parade , externaldominates Weibo discussion, with millions of reads and comments from Chinese social media users in the mainland pouring in. This user, external blogged about watching the parade live (with his cat) from his living room, praising the "strength and might" of the military. Citizens from other cities grumbled about the quality of the live stream, external. And others were just online to wish modern China a happy birthday.

But let's not forget about China's control over the internet: it heavily censors negative comments on Weibo so we're unlikely to see critical comments there - at least not for long.

Here are a few pictures of the parade so far.

Image source, CGTN

Image source, CGTN

Image source, CGTN

Image source, CGTN

Robin Brant
BBC News, Beijing

Image source, EPA

Standing in the exact spot where Mao declared the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping was the only one among the country’s senior leaders wearing the Mao-like suit.

President Xi has made absolutely no secret of his desire to evoke memories of the country’s revolutionary founding father. His brief speech touched on familiar themes: unity, on-going struggle, China’s inexorable progress.

Then he was carried along, standing, in a car for a lengthy review of the military parade. He waved occasionally, they replied with shouts of loyalty.

Military leaders have said this isn’t "muscle flexing", but note that this key moment, this celebration of 70 years of Communist Party control, is focused overwhelmingly on military might.

Tessa Wong
Hong Kong

As hundreds of millions in China and elsewhere watch the parade live on television, thousands are also watching livestreams online around the world.

State broadcaster CCTV's livestream has, in an unusual move, opened its comment section, featuring a steady torrent of patriotic slogans, such as "Long live the People's Republic of China!"

But there's also abuse. "Evil Chinese empire!" said one commenter. "Remember June 4th!" said another commenter, in a reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre which took place on the site of this very parade. Others are calling for a free Hong Kong.

We're expecting more than 150 planes to fly over the city today - and we've just seen the first of them. As expected, one flyby was in a "70" formation - hard to hide rehearsals of that.

Alexander Neill
International Institute for Strategic Studies

Xi has now reviewed the troops lined up along Chang'an Avenue.

The Sharp Sword batwing stealth drone is there along with what appears to be a new and quite large unmanned underwater vehicle.

Xi's limousine turned around to head back to the rostrum next to the DF-41 - that's China's new intercontinental ballistic missile at the end of the missile line-up.

And we have just seen a close-up of the new DF-17 with the hypersonic glide vehicle warhead mounted on the missile.

President Xi Xinping is parading up and down long lines of chanting soldiers and military hardware while there's patriotic music blasting from speakers across the square. We're checking in on the equipment on show - there's excitement from military analysts about whether new gear might be revealed today.

Image source, CGTN

Image source, CGTN

Image source, CGTN

Image source, CGTN