Chinese authorities are doing everything in their power to ensure that nothing rains on the nation's 60th anniversary parade Thursday - including keeping 18 cloud-seeding airplanes on standby to disperse any thunderstorms before they reach Beijing.
But six decades after Mao Zedong's communist revolution, a robust debate continues over whether and when a regime that has blended strict social controls with increasing economic freedom will evolve toward greater democracy.
On Tuesday, much of central Beijing was on lockdown as hotels, restaurants and shops were shut along the parade route from the Avenue of Eternal Peace to Tiananmen Square. Tourist attractions including the Forbidden City, once home to emperors, were closed to the public.
Leading dissidents and human rights lawyers have been arrested or are being kept under close watch. New regulations banned petitioners from coming to Beijing to air their grievances - a practice that goes back to imperial times. Among those rebuffed were parents of some of the thousands of children sickened in China's scandal over tainted milk.
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