BEIJING • Attending China's National Day celebrations over the years has been a bit like listening to different takes of a song, with the composer honing the themes and jettisoning the raw bits until the piece sounds just right.
That's how I felt at Tuesday's celebrations in Tiananmen Square, held to observe the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. I've attended two other ceremonies like this before - for the 35th anniversary in 1984 and the 50th in 1999 - and I knew the basic drill: a big military parade followed by floats celebrating the government's accomplishments.
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