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Former top leaders of China also stood at the Tiananmen viewing platform - but notably absent was former president Hu Jintao.

But the world should not worry, says Prof Hu Bo, director of the Center for Maritime Strategy Studies at Peking University.

"China already has the capacity to take Taiwan back," Prof Hu Bo says, "but China doesn't do that because we have patience. China has never given up on the prospect of peaceful unification. We can wait."

So despite Prof Hu Bo's assurances, it is hard to ignore the fact that China's warships are beginning to sail further from the country's shores.

But Prof Hu Bo believes that fears of a conflict between the US, whose allies in the region - Japan, South Korea and Australia - are often at odds with China, are overblown, because they all know it could be catastrophic.