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HONG KONG: As China stages its largest-ever military parade through Beijing next week, it will be highlighting not just advancements in arms hardware, but also the vital technology required to protect, control and command the weapons it would use in any future conflict.
Among the more eye-catching aircraft, hypersonic missiles and undersea drones, will be equipment such as battlefield sensors on tanks, advanced early warning and targeting radars and air defense lasers — all part of an effort that some analysts describe as transparency designed to intimidate and deter potential rivals. But beyond the unprecedented scale and choreographed display of military might, question marks remain about how effectively China’s armed forces — untested since a bloody border conflict with Vietnam in 1979 — could knit it all together in a future conflict.
Singapore-based security scholar Drew Thompson said while the People’s Liberation Army may unveil advanced weapons and systems to protect and command them, China’s key potential adversaries may not be deterred by the “bling” of a parade.
“It is performative but it doesn’t speak to capability, and we still don’t know how effectively China could tie it all together and operate in a conflict scenario,” said Thompson, a senior fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS).
The parade comes amid protracted military tensions across East Asia as China increases deployments around Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea and the US and its allies prepare potentially to respond to a regional conflict.
China claims Taiwan as its territory and has never renounced the use of force to seize it. Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te and his government strongly object to China’s sovereignty claims, saying it is up to the island’s people to decide their future.
While the military leaderships of the US and its allies like Japan as well as Taiwan may not be deterred, others might be intimidated, Thompson said.
To that end, China might be signalling to India, Russia and smaller regional nations as well as “American libertarian isolationists.”
“As you’re watching the parade, it is easy to get distracted....it is not about the bling, but the effect the bling has on the view of the observer — that is China is too big to fight and US interests aren’t worth the risk or the consequences of a fight with China.”
The Chinese defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

VICTORY DAY PARADE
Regional military attaches and security analysts have already been scrutinizing on-line footage of the rehearsals of what Beijing has called a “Victory Day” parade, marking the end of World War Two after Japan’s formal surrender.
The war is also often described by Chinese officials and in state media as the “War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression” and the “World Anti-Fascist War.”
“(The weapons and equipment) will fully demonstrate our military’s robust ability to adapt to technological advancements, evolving warfare patterns, and win future wars,” parade deputy director Wu Zeke told a press conference last week.
If Beijing is to win those wars, it will have to fully integrate a network of military satellites and cyber and electronic warfare capabilities, now considered second only to the United States, and use them to effectively dominate its near seas.
To that end, an early warning plane capable of operating from China’s aircraft carriers, the KJ-600, has been displayed — a vital piece in finishing the complex jigsaw of carrier operations.
China’s jet fighters will also be closely watched, particularly following Pakistan’s use of Chinese-built J-10C fighters against Indian aircraft during clashes in May.
Pakistan has claimed that it shot down six Indian aircraft during the clashes, including a French-made Rafale fighter. India has acknowledged some losses but denied losing six aircraft and,
earlier this month, said it had shot down six Pakistani planes. A suite of new YJ-17, YJ-19 and YJ-20 cruise missiles will also be shown. They could be deployed from bombers and ships, some with hypersonic warheads — potentially complicating operations by US and allied ships across East Asia.
And a new medium-sized tank, the ZTZ-201, has appeared in rehearsals bristling with what analysts believe are advanced sensors and battle management systems.
An entirely new weapon on show is also vexing analysts with its sudden appearance — a torpedo-shaped sea drone too large to be fired from ordinary submarines. Ben Lewis, founder of open source data platform PLATracker, said its emergence suggested China had been closely tracking the US’s own underwater drone program.
While it is unclear how close it is to operational, “if they can produce a lot of these kinds of weapons cheaply, things could get very ugly, very fast in a Taiwan scenario,” Lewis said. Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the RSIS’ Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, said while the sea drone effort had been underway for some time, he was surprised that it had reached the point where the PLA was ready to show it off.
“(It) seems to be imply that the system is either already in service or soon to do so,” he said.

NAIROBI: Using a crutch to bear her weight, 85-year-old Molly Aluoch trudges from her mud-walled room on the outskirts of a sprawling Nairobi slum, shouldering a sack of used plastic to exchange for a shower or a safe toilet.
For the 31 years she has lived in Kibera, Kenya’s largest informal settlement, water and sanitation have remained scarce and costly — often controlled by cartels who charge residents prices beyond their means.
The Human Needs Project (HNP) seeks to mitigate that. Residents can trade discarded plastic for “green points,” or credits, they can redeem for services such as drinking water, toilets, showers, laundries and even meals.
“With my green points, I can now access a comfortable and clean toilet and bathroom any time of the day,” Aluoch said.
Before, she would spend 10 shillings (eight US cents) to use a toilet and another 10 for a bathroom, a significant chunk from the residents’ average daily income, 200 to 400 shillings, before food and housing costs.
“It meant that without money, I would not use a toilet,” she said.
Unable to use Kibera’s pit latrines owing to her frailty meant she would have to resort to “unhygienic means.”
Now, that money goes toward food for her three grandchildren.
Aluoch, a traditional birth attendant, is among some 100 women who collect plastics for green points, helping them access water, sanitation, and hygiene services.
She takes her plastic to a center 200 meters (yards) from her home, where one kilogramme of recyclable plastics earns 15 green points, equivalent to 15 shillings.
The project serves some 800 residents daily, allowing them access to modern bathrooms, clean water and menstrual hygiene facilities — services that are out of reach for many Kibera households.
Since 2015, the project has distributed more than 50 million liters (13 million gallons) of water and more than one million toilet and shower uses.
In 2024 alone, it distributed 11 million liters of water and enabled 124,000 bathroom and toilet uses.


With water a scarce commodity in Kibera, it is common for vendors to create artificial shortages to inflate prices, forcing residents to pay more than 10 times the normal price.
The city’s water service charges between $0.60 and $0.70 per cubic meter for connected households, but by comparison, Kibera residents have to stump up as much as $8 to $19 for the same amount.
“Getting water was hard. We could go several days without water,” said Magret John, 50, a mother of three.
Today, her reality is different.
“The water point is at my doorstep. The supply is steady and the water is clean. All I need is to collect plastics, get points, redeem and get water,” she said.
John, who has lived in Kibera for nine years, says the project has been a game changer, especially for women and girls.
“Access to proper sanitation services guarantees women and girls their dignity during menstruation.”
Now, with 10 water points spread across Kibera — pulled from a borehole with a daily capacity of half a million liters — NHP shields some residents from informal vendors’ exploitative pricing.
The project’s dual mission is to meet basic human needs while tackling Kibera’s mounting waste problem.
HNP’s director of strategic partnerships Peter Muthaura said it helps to improve health and the daily living conditions in Kibera.
“When people cannot access dignified toilets and bathrooms, the environment bears the impact,” he said.
It also fosters development, he said.
In the first quarter of 2025 alone, Kibera residents delivered two tons of recyclable plastic, with around 250 women directly engaged in daily collection and delivery.
For Aluoch, every sack of plastics and every green point earned goes beyond clean water and sanitation: it restores a sense of dignity.
“My prayer is that this project spreads to every corner of Kibera, and reaches thousands of women whose dignity has been robbed by a lack of sanitation services,” she said.