A 70-gun salute by the PLA signaled the start of the ceremony at 10 a.m. local time. Xi and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang appeared on the stage, along with other members of the party's seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, China's highest decision-making body.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and South Korean President Park Guen-hye were among the foreign dignitaries in attendance, but most Western countries sent ministers and ambassadors, rather than top leaders, to the ceremony.
Japan did not dispatch any representative to the event, but former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama attended the ceremony in an unofficial capacity.
China's army, navy and air force, as well as its strategic missile force, took part in the military parade, the first since Xi took office in 2012. Similar parades were held in 1999 and 2009 to celebrate the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the founding of the People's Republic of China, though both were held on Oct. 1, China's National Day.