The People’s Republic of China celebrates 70 years October 1. Hong Kongers plan to stage a protest that day. According to an article in Democracy Digest it is bound to be a confrontation of monumental proportions.

The Sharp Sword stealth drones and the intercontinental ballistic missiles and the truck-borne monuments to the Communist struggle are ready. Flowers have been planted and red lanterns hung along all the major thoroughfares of Beijing. Almost 100,000 people have been practicing their formations in Tiananmen Square, The Washington Post’s Anna Fifield reports:

The Communist Party is ready to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1 with the kind of military extravaganza that only Stalinist states can pull off. It ought to be a particularly sweet anniversary for China’s leaders: Their Communist state has now lasted longer than the Soviet Union, which endured for 69 years. But it is not. The months-long standoff between the party and the millions who have been protesting in Hong Kong is set to come to a head on Oct. 1, when the demonstrators plan to stage a counter-rally.

“A confrontation of monumental proportions is coming up,” said Orville Schell, a China specialist at the Asia Society. “Clearly, something will happen on Oct. 1.”

In 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised that the Communist Party would deliver great successes in advance of two upcoming centennials, in 2021 and 2049. But no amount of nationalist posturing can change the fact that the fall of the CPC appears closer than at any time since the end of the Mao era, says Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

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