copyright 2009, The Washington Post BEIJING -- Advanced weaponry, performers and masses of students, and precision marching soldiers will roll through Beijing's Tiananmen Square this week to mark the 60th anniversary of the Communist Revolution. The parade is to be a display of China's growing political and military strength, and preparations have consumed this country's top leadership. Nearly 200,000 students from Beijing middle and high schools have been rehearsing since early July, and recently some staged dry runs lasting until 3 a.m. Military brigades have been practicing goose-stepping formations on the outskirts of the city. And all week television shows have featured celebrities praising the nation and singing heartfelt songs about the Chinese Communist Party. Film director Zhang Yimou, whose early movies were banned in China, is helping to choreograph the National Day celebration, as he did the opening ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Thursday parade, the first in 10 years, marks China's continuing rise since the Communist Party shed its strict ideology and started embracing economic reforms in the 1980s. It offers the military, which is in the midst of a long-term modernization program, a chance to show off its latest equipment, including 108 missiles and perhaps a new armored fighting vehicle. 'The key message the Chinese government aims to send to the Chinese people through the parade and display of new weapons is that the Chinese Communist Party has wiped away all the shame the Chinese people suffered over the past 100 years,' said Xiao Gongqin, a history professor at Shanghai Normal University. China's leaders, who gathered Monday to view a musical historical epic film called 'Road to Revival,' have looked forward to the event with a mixture of apprehension and eagerness. Security forces are on guard against possible disruptions by ethnic Uighurs from the restive western region of Xinjiang, pro-democracy activists or other critics of the ruling party. The government has taken over hotel rooms facing the main avenue leading through Tiananmen Square and has ordered nearby offices to be emptied by midday Wednesday. It has banned the flying of pigeons, kites or balloons as well as sales of knives. It has mobilized thousands of extra security troops and will block off streets, forcing most people even in Beijing to watch the parade on television. This year marks not only the 60th anniversary of the Communist takeover of China but also 20 years since the Tiananmen protests that many analysts predicted would split the party and lead to its downfall. Rather than yielding to that fate, the party has proven flexible and surprisingly adept, clamping down on political foes while offering greater economic freedom. Whereas the image of a lone protester standing in front of a tank during the bloody June 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen demonstrators symbolized China 20 years ago, a small armored vehicle parked along the Avenue of Heavenly Peace was treated as a curiosity this week, attracting people who posed with it and soldiers in the background. 'Looking back 60 years, we can see that during the first 30 years the Communist Party went sideways, especially during Mao's era,' said Xiao, the history professor, citing the famine of the early 1960s and stagnation during the Cultural Revolution. But, he said, the economic reforms ushered in by Deng Xiaoping led to the country's modernization, and the party's message is that 'overall the party brought good to the Chinese people.' Some businesses were trying to make even more good from the holiday this week. The luxury Shin Kong department store, for example, advertised 'special offers' on CDs of post-1980s 'red songs,' National Day souvenirs, and goods from the 'share happiness' food court. Still, many of the people at Tiananmen Square on Tuesday night seemed to have gotten the government's message. 'When I see these things, it seems obvious that China's strength has been enhanced,' said clothing wholesaler Han Tianshun, 38, who was squatting on the sidewalk near the square with his wife, Qin Ruiying, and their 2-year-old son. 