Shrinking and flexing

摘要

EIGHTEEN helicopters land with a roar at XLzhurihe, a military base in Inner Mon-golia. Troops pour onto the endless prairie in a mock airborne assault, marking, said China Daily, a state-owned newspaper, "the first time the People's Liberation Army had presented fighting manoeuvres in a parade" (troops usually just march up and down). Looking on, in combat fatigues, was China's president, Xi Jinping. The occasion was the 90th anniversary of the founding of the pla on August 1st. The event signalled a new phase in China's biggest military shake-up for half a century. That shake-up is a case study in Mr Xi's style of modernisation, and may hold lessons for reform in other areas.