China staged a stunning but old-fashioned display of state power on Thursday that combined hundreds of thousands of performers and made-in-China military hardware, all laced with a heavy dose of propaganda.

The parade to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China repeated the flawless execution of the Olympics opening ceremony last year. But while the sports event provided a glimpse of a modernising China, this was a hark back to Communist orthodoxies of old.