China set to celebrate anniversary amid hidden turmoil
Beijing has gone into lockdown for Tuesday's 70th National Day celebrations.
As we edited in our office there was a guard stationed outside the door, three more downstairs at the entrance to the building and dozens standing guard inside and outside every other building in the compound. A indication of the level of security in place.
For the past month the restrictions and security measures in the capital have gradually increased. From road blocks, to curfews, to the banning of flying kites - even pigeons aren't welcome - there has been a build up in the campaign to ensure October 1 runs smoothly.
Huge importance is being placed on this year's National Day military parade and pageantry, the first to be held in the reign of President Xi Jinping. It will be his opportunity to showcase 70 years of the Chinese Communist Party and glorify single-party rule.
With more than 300,000 civilians taking part it will show the people rejoicing in China's achievements following seven decades of struggle. A nod will be made to the hundreds of thousands of people lifted out of poverty, to new and advancing technologies and the goal of self-sustainability.
The Made in China ambition will, for the first time, be showcased in military hardware. The country has long had the largest standing army in the world, just over two million, but its aim is now to become the most sophisticated and powerful. Tuesday's parade will unveil Chinese made tanks, bombers, drones and missiles - some of them never seen before. For President Xi this is a particular source of pride.
There is an argument that this anniversary comes at an opportune time for Xi Jinping when he is facing challenges on all fronts. Domestically, the situation in Hong Kong continues to spiral further and further out of control, Beijing had hoped the young protesters would have run out of steam by now, instead they appear more determined as the weeks go by.
The President is also facing a challenge from the UN to allow access to Xinjiang province potentially more than a million Muslims have been detained in what the Chinese Government likes to call ‘vocational education centres’. The Uighur minorities have been rounded up and sent to these centres, where they are forced to pledge their allegiance to the Communist Party and denounce their religion. It is part of a wider crusade which has also seen Christians targeted and churches destroyed.
On the global front, China is locked in a trade war with the United States. Talks have stalled and despite claims from President Trump that the two leaders remain "great friends" there is little sign of a deal which could help ease the turmoil created in international markets.
For a majority of people in China, those three issues, among many which I could raise, will be largely ignored or forgotten. Their focus, as the Government wants it to be, is on how far the country has come.
It is a constant reminder of the past, the struggles, the famine, the torture endured during the cultural revolution which remain the reference points on which Chinese people - young and old - frame their future. Life in China, as one man told ITV News on Monday, "just gets better and better". Living standards had improved vastly. The country has eclipsed Japan and India to become a regional superpower and it is challenging the United States on the global stage.
Tuesday's 70th anniversary of the Peoples Republic of China will be celebrated in millions of households. Families the length and breadth of the country will marvel at what their nation has become. But for minorities like the Uighur Muslims, Christians, human rights lawyers, labour activists, NGOs and of course those fighting on the streets of Hong Kong, the Chinese Communist Party has come to represent something as dangerous, as it is dominant.