Putin had previously traveled to China for several days, in which he took part in the Shanghaier Organization for Cooperation (Soz) in Tianjin. There Putin and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonstratively held on their hands and showed themselves in a good mood alongside XI. The Chinese president campaigned for a “fair, multipolar order”.
Historically, Beijing took up a dark chapter with the parade, which took place in a similar form ten years ago. Officially, she was entitled to the “End of Japanese Aggression”.
Japan attacked China in 1937. The war lasted until 1945 and demanded millions of dead in China. At that time, nationalists and communists agreed on a unit front against Japan, but remained suspicious of each other. After the Japanese surrender, the civil war flared up between them.
In 1949 the communists won, Mao Zedong called the People’s Republic of China in Beijing, while the nationalists withdrew to Taiwan. The fact that the People’s Republic did not yet exist in 1945 is still mentioned as a reason to criticize Beijing’s presentation of the war – especially in Taiwan, which is ruled itself, but is used by Beijing as a own territory.
According to Claus Soong from the Berlin China Institute Merics, Beijing primarily pursues the parade of foreign policy goals. It is “a platform to reinterpret the historical memory of the Second World War”. Beijing wants to show that today it is strong enough to present its own view of history and world order.
The military parade of China’s communist leadership on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Japan in World War II was the largest in the People’s Republic to date. The rare event in the Chinese capital was also an opportunity to take a look at new troops and weapon systems of the People’s Liberation Army.
