In Beijing, President Xi Jinping's grand military parade through the capital will be cheered as a display of national pride after 70 years of Communist Party rule. In Washington, many will see a growing threat to American dominance in the Western Pacific.

Alongside the tanks, troop carriers and columns of goose-stepping soldiers, the 80-minute procession past Tiananmen Square on Tuesday is expected to showcase a set of missiles that have prompted the U.S. in recent months and years to try and put more firepower in East Asia. China has poured money into building what former Pacific Cmdr. Harry Harris called "the largest and most diverse missile force in the world."

The parade — Xi's second such event in four years — will feature the fruits of that labor, according to analysis of photos of equipment staged in advance of the holiday. One intercontinental ballistic missile — the Dongfeng-41, which has one of the longest ranges in the world — will be publicly displayed for the first time, researchers Antoine Bondaz and Stephane Delory of the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris wrote.