BEIJING (AP) – Chinese leader Xi Jinping and invited Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrive at the historic Tiananmen Gate to see Military Parade Wednesday in Beijing.
Xi individually shook hands with guests on the red carpet before climbing the stairs to the gate’s viewing platform overlooking the Cheonankai Square.
Putin and Kim lined up XI towards the platform. The other guests politely applauded as they walked to their seats. They paused to shake hands with five World War II veterans.
The audience includes around 20 foreign leaders from the country who are trying to improve or maintain relations with Beijing’s government.
Celebrating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the parade will showcase missiles, modern fighter jets and other military forces, aiming to make a major impact on China’s global stage. Some military hardware has been made public for the first time.
In the country, anniversary commemorations are a way to show how far China has come. China is a major front in war, and the facts often overlooked in accounts focusing on European and US naval combat in the Pacific Ocean. Postwar Japan’s invasion and conflict itself killed millions of Chinese people.
The military parade is a show of power that encourages support for the Communist Party and its leader XI, a way of portraying itself as a global alternative to the postwar era, dominated by the US.
