President Hu Jintao put on a 'Mao suit' for his inspection of China's military forces yesterday, tracking a National Day tradition handed down from late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping .
Both Deng and Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, also wore grey Mao suits in the military inspections in 1984 and 1999 respectively.
Hu's looked darker than Jiang's but lighter than Deng's. Media reports had said Hu's suit was specially tailored for yesterday's event, incorporating many innovations in design and style.
'Putting on a Mao suit for the National Day military inspection is a show of respect for Chinese national traditions and also a symbol of the highest [Communist] party and state leader in China,' military historian Jiang Tingyu said during the online broadcast of the National Day celebration on Dayoo.com.
Of China's paramount leaders, only Mao Zedong and Deng actually commanded field battles. However, Jiang and Hu, each as chairman of the party's Central Military Commission, were and are constitutionally the leaders of the nation's military forces.
As a gesture to the world that China was a civilian regime, Deng discarded his military uniform and put on a Mao suit while inspecting the military parade on the 35th National Day in 1984, and the practice has been followed since.
Hu, like his predecessors, zoomed past the military forces, standing in an open-roofed black Hongqi (or Red Flag) limousine, the brand of car Mao favoured.