Some 3,000 People's Liberation Army troops marched through the territory's main military barracks in the rural northern New Territories watched by 17,000 ticket-buying members of the public.

The parade also featured tanks, helicopters, weaponry and armoured vehicles deployed in the southern Chinese city since it reverted to Beijing rule from British colonial control in 1997.

It was the first time the PLA had held a parade to mark its own birthday and the first time the garrison had been shown off to the public in the largely autonomous capitalist enclave of communist China.

Under sweltering heat, the troops precision-marched watched by clapping observers including the territory's Beijing-backed political leader, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa.

Although the event was billed as a celebration of the PLA's creation under communist China's founding father Mao Zedong, it was also hoped to boost nationalism in a city newly brought into the Chinese fold.

It comes at a time soon after Hong Kongers' faith in its communist rulers was shaken by a hardline intervention in April that ruled against a long-called for quick transition to universal suffrage.

The move, and the heating up of a long-running feud between Beijing and democrats here, bred suspicion of communist leaders not seen since the Cold War era resulting in fears China would intervene more in the city's running.

Political commentator Professor Michael DeGolyer of Hong Kong's Baptist University believes the parade was given added significance after huge pro-democracy rallies of the past two years had hijacked July 1 -- the date of Hong Kong's handover -- as a day of national celebration.

"It's an opportunity to re-establish and reassert the national purpose on the people," said DeGolyer, whose Hong Kong Transition Project has monitored the city's move from colony to Chinese territory.

Observers have been quick to point out the parade's proximity to contentious September elections, saying Beijing organised it to boost the chances of candidates that back the local and central governments in a poll expected to be won by pro-democracy parties.

Keen to distance itself from such claims, the PLA invited pro-democratic members of the city's legislature to the parade -- an invitation many said they would turn down.

The parade follows a number of other events organised by China in Hong Kong in a charm offensive hoped to improve the central government's image here after April's ruling by Beijing.

DeGolyer, however, believes the parade is more positive than that, suggesting it indicates that central authorities are prepared to bury the hatchet with democrats it had previously branded unpatriotic.

"This is a peace pipe, if you like," he said. "It's a way to gather everybody together around a national purpose at a time when society is divided.

"I think it shows a readiness on the part of the central authorities to accept that those democrats it had once feared are actually nationalists after all and that their calls for political reform are not designed to harm Hong Kong or China."

All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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