China officially observed the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War 2 last September 3 with the now historic 2025 China Victory Day Parade. It was called Conference to Commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
It was reported that 12,000 troops of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) participated in the parade while Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected the troops. In his speech, Xi pointed out that through immense national sacrifice, the Chinese people made a major contribution to saving human civilization and safeguarding world peace.
There are two facets of the celebration that should stand out. First, Xi’s statement that “Today, humanity is again faced with the choice of peace or war, dialogue or confrontation, win-win or zero-sum” and with these realities of the global stage, the Chinese people “firmly stand on the right side of history.”
The second important thing that should be mentioned is the attendance of some 26 world leaders. Among these were Russian President Vladimir Putin, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea Kim Jong Un, and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.
The fact that Xi, Putin and Kim Jong Un appeared in public together at a military parade is something for the West to be worried about. The CNN noted that the three leaders stood together publicly for the first time at a military parade.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was not invited in this event, although all the other ASEAN heads of state were invited, and several of them were at the ceremonies. The leaders of Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam and Brunei Darussalam joined in the celebration, although Vietnam and Brunei are also claimants in portions of the South China Sea. Absent the violence rallies in Indonesia, this country’s president would have attended, too.
But not Bongbong Marcos, who has stupidly aligned himself with US President Donald Trump.
Twenty-six years ago, I was in Chang’an Avenue, Tiananmen Square in Beijing when the People’s Republic of China celebrated its 50th anniversary on October 1, 1999.
We were a group of Filipino journalists including publishers Teddy Boy Locsin, Jake Macasaet, and editors Joann Ramirez and Beting Dolor. Beijing invited some 1,000 media persons from many countries to attend the ceremonies, which featured a military parade, mass pageant, music and dance gala.
Party Secretary General Jiang Zemin delivered an emotional and inspiring speech, inspected the troops of the People’s Liberation Army, the People’s Armed Police, the Militia, and greeted Chinese officials. I remember seeing huge posters of Sun Yat-sen, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Zhou Enlai leading the parade.
To our Filipino eyes, the 1999 military parade was already impressive—yet the visuals, technological realities and coercive capabilities of the recent Tiananmen Square parade under China President Xi Jinping this week would make that extravaganza 26 years ago look like a boy-scouts procession.
The event was considered a defiant challenge to the United States-led world order, a decaying concept if you will ask me. The parade featured thousands of advanced weapons, including cutting-edge drones and robots to be used exclusively for military purposes.
Imagine how the past 26 years of discipline, dogged hard work, research, training, innovation and engineering interventions aside from economic progress have resulted in this superior military capability for China, which has the biggest standing army in the world.
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