Old and new guard: Three Chinese presidents line up in first for Beijing’s military parade

Three presidents, past and present, lined up for the first time on the Tiananmen rostrum as the military parade rolled past yesterday morning.

With the help of an assistant, former president Jiang Zemin , 89, made his way slowly up the stairs to the balcony. His successor, Hu Jintao , 72, walked unaided but his left hand had a persistent tremble as he stood with his successor President Xi Jinping .

Three former premiers - Li Peng , Zhu Rongji and Wen Jiabao - turned out, as did former vice-president Zeng Qinghong , and former Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference chairman Li Ruihuan .

The military has been through big changes since Jiang and Hu commanded the People's Liberation Army. Gone are the top military men from Hu's time, Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou , both brought down in Xi's anti-graft campaign. Both were rising stars during Jiang's time at the top, with Guo promoted to vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission in 2002, when Jiang was chairman.

It was the first television appearance for Jiang since a banquet last September to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the People's Republic of China and the first for Hu since June 19, when he attended a memorial for Qiao Shi, former chairman of the National People's Congress.

The health of Li Peng, who played a core role in the crackdown on the 1989 student movement and whose family is a big player in China's electricity sector, has been under scrutiny in recent years but the state broadcast of the parade showed him apparently in good spirits.

Overseas China-watchers have speculated about Li's clout after the Communist Party's anti-graft agency launched investigations into the activities of several senior executives of state-owned power firms. His daughter, Li Xiaolin, an industry veteran, is thought to have been sidelined in a merger of state-owned power conglomerates.