Fighter jets will roar over Beijing and tanks will rumble past Tiananmen Square on Wednesday when China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, presides over an elaborate military parade designed to stoke national pride and show off China’s diplomatic heft.
More than two dozen leaders, mostly authoritarian, are expected to attend. Joining Mr. Xi are President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran — the first time that the leaders of the four countries will gather in the same place.
China is using the parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. The event is designed to showcase some of the nation’s newest weapons and draw attention to what the ruling Communist Party asserts are China’s unrecognized contributions to the defeat of Imperial Japan.
Security has been tightened across Beijing in preparation for the parade. Rehearsals have involved more than 40,000 soldiers, civilians and staff. The parade route will proceed along Chang’an Avenue, a central thoroughfare that passes Tiananmen Square and the entrance to the Forbidden City.
Dictators, Neighbors, and One NATO State
Other guests who are expected to attend include Min Aung Hlaing, the chief of Myanmar’s junta and President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo, leaders who hail from countries with abysmal human rights records. Only seven of the 25 countries whose leaders are attending are considered free or partly-free by Freedom House, a Washington-based advocacy group.
There is one notable outlier, Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia, a NATO member state considered one of the freest countries in Central Europe. Mr. Fico, a longtime critic of Western support for Ukraine, has worked hard to forge better diplomatic and economic ties with Beijing.
Still, the convergence of so many decidedly undemocratic leaders “underscores China’s pull with autocrats as the world’s leading authoritarian power,” said Neil Thomas, a fellow at the Asia Society’s Center for China Analysis.
Also telling, Mr. Thomas said, was that leaders from 11 of the 14 countries bordering China were represented, including Mongolia, Laos and Nepal, offering “a vivid demonstration that China is already a regional superpower.”
What to Expect
If the last victory parade commemorating World War II in Beijing 2015 is any guide, viewers can expect a heavily choreographed show with goose-stepping soldiers, bands playing stirring martial music and military aircraft flying overhead in tight formation releasing plumes of colorful smoke.
Mr. Xi will likely review the assembled troops through the sunroof of a Chinese-made Red Flag limousine affixed with microphones which he will use to periodically belt, “Greetings, Comrades!”
Mr. Xi will then join the visiting world leaders to watch the rest of the parade. In 2015, World War II veterans were included in the event, waving from roofless buses.
Nationalism and a Recasting of the War
The parade is the centerpiece of a broader campaign by the Communist Party to fan nationalistic and anti-Japanese sentiment. The party has promoted movies that focused on the brutality of the Japanese Imperial Army, packing movie theaters across the country, priming audiences for Mr. Xi’s message.
That fervor is politically useful to the party. By reviving memories of wartime trauma, the party has a way to rally domestic support in the face of a prolonged economic slump, youth unemployment and tensions with the United States. The campaign has also raised frictions with Japan. Last week, Beijing lodged a protest with Tokyo over reports that Japan had asked European and Asian governments not to attend the parade.
Mr. Xi is expected to highlight the larger role China played in World War II, something that is not typically recognized in the West. The recasting of the war serves two purposes: to cast the party as the nation’s savior, even though historians say the Nationalists did most of the fighting, and to buttress Beijing’s claims to territory — especially Taiwan — that it says Western nations have denied in the war’s aftermath.
Modern Firepower for a ‘World-Class’ Military
The parade is expected to showcase some of China’s newest weapons that will help the country achieve its goal of building a “world-class” military.
That includes nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, next generation tanks and a host of uncrewed weapon systems. China says it needs a top notch army to maintain peace and to defend itself from outside aggressors such as the United States.
Many of the new weapons expected to be unveiled at the parade appear designed to advance China’s capabilities for an invasion of Taiwan, the self-governing island claimed by Beijing. Those include hypersonic anti-ship missiles that could potentially thwart the U.S. Navy coming to Taiwan’s defense, and combat drones that can help China’s military better navigate Taiwan’s mountainous terrain.
While the show of force is meant to highlight China’s might, it also comes at a time when the country’s military leadership is in disarray from a crackdown on corruption. Three of the seven seats on the Central Military Commission, the Communist Party’s oversight council that controls the armed forces, appear to be empty after members were arrested or disappeared.
David Pierson covers Chinese foreign policy and China’s economic and cultural engagement with the world. He has been a journalist for more than two decades.
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