China’s rise is unstoppable: Xi

Bloomberg

President Xi Jinping presided over a grand display of China’s strength in Beijing — declaring that no force could stop the country’s rise — even as concerns grew over the condition of the first protester shot in Hong Kong after almost four months of unrest.
Speaking at the start of a massive parade marking 70 years since the founding of the People’s Republic, Xi called for stability in Hong Kong, unity among Chinese ethnic groups, and the “complete unification” of the country. Xi delivered the remarks at the site where late Communist Party patriarch Mao Zedong proclaimed the nation’s founding on October 1, 1949.
“A socialist China is standing in the east of the world and there is no force that can shake the foundation of this great nation,” Xi told a crowd of carefully vetted guests under smoggy skies in the centre of the capital. “No force can stop the Chinese people and the Chinese nation from forging ahead.”
Xi’s rallying cry came before an hours-long pageant showcasing China’s industrial and scientific achievements, including sophisticated weaponry such as DF-17 ballistic missiles believed capable of circumventing US defense systems. The tightly choreographed proceedings sought to reinforce the strength of a party facing
multiple threats, from Donald Trump’s trade war and slowing economic growth to unrest in one of Asia’s top financial hubs.
“Beijing is keenly aware that as this celebration of China’s defense investments and capabilities are underway, there’s a direct challenge to China’s national unity in Hong Kong,” said Alexander Neill, a senior fellow in Asia Pacific security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore. “Clearly it is a sort of a pinnacle, the key opportunity for the protest movement to demonstrate that they don’t accept Beijing’s sovereignty, they don’t accept the legitimacy of the Communist Party, they don’t accept their own government.”
Even before the parade ended, pro-democracy protesters had begun gathering in several neighbourhoods around Hong Kong, with crowds at one point growing into the tens of thousands. Some demonstrators lit fires, built barricades, scrawled anti-China graffiti on buildings and clashed with police who fired tear gas and swung clubs to disperse them.
An 18-year-old protester was shot near in the left shoulder during scuffles with riot police in the northwestern area of Tsuen Wan, Police Senior Superintendent Yolanda Yu said.
The man was conscious when he was taken to the hospital,
Yu said. Although police have drawn their weapons and fired warning shots into air during recent protests, this was the first confirmed case of a demonstrator being shot.
Demonstrations have rocked the city since early June, triggered by proposed legislation allowing extraditions to China before morphing into a broader push back against Beijing’s grip.