China to stage historic parade to mark WorldWar II victory

The Soviet Red Army entered China’s northeast city of Harbin after the Soviet Union declared war against Japan on Aug. 8, 1945, which accelerated the surrender of Japanese invaders [Xinhua]

After Russia’s Victory Day celebrations in May marked a new east-west divide, the Chinese government on Tuesday outlined plans for a military parade through the Chinese capital to mark the 70th anniversary of victory in the second world war.

Wang Shiming, deputy publicity chief of the ruling Communist Party’s Central Committee, said at a press conference on Tuesday that Beijing is inviting foreign militaries to participate in the parade.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already confirmed he will be attending the September 3 parade in Beijing. Other world leaders expected to attend are China’s BRICS partners.

Japan had formally surrendered on September 2, 1945, and China celebrated its victory the following day.

“Certain people in the West have always lacked an objective and just recognition of China’s position and role in the world anti-fascist war. The facts of history are that in the world’s war against fascism, the Chinese people’s war against Japan was an important component and played an important role in the eastern theater,” Wang said in Beijing on Tuesday.

Thousands of PLA (People’s Liberation Army) troops will march past the podium in central Beijing, followed by dozens of tanks and weapons systems shown to the public for the first time.

Qu Rui, deputy head of the Office of the Military Parade Leading Group, said on Tuesday all parade troops have been assembled at a Beijing training base and adjacent airports. They will train for three months for the event.

China Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying had said in January this year that both countries made great sacrifices and contributions to the victory of the world’s anti-Fascist War.

“As two of the main battlefields in Asia and Europe during World War Two, China and Russia will hold a series of celebrations, and state leaders will attend commemorations held in each other’s country,” she said.

China’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, led to the death of some 20 million Chinese, according to Beijing’s estimates. It ended with Tokyo’s World War II defeat in 1945.

On May 9, Russia commemorates the sacrifice of the millions who fought and died to bring down the Third Reich and end Hitler’s expansionist whims.

Although most Western historians believe that 22 million Soviets died in the Great Patriotic War, Russian sources put the number higher – at 27 million people.

Russia’s Red Army lost 8.5 million troops – a figure comparable only with German losses. Another 18 million were civilians who died as a result of Hitler’s genocide.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a war commemoration event last year that “forgetting history means betrayal and denying the crime means committing it once again.”

Obama ally and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has had said he intends to express remorse over World War II in a statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the conflict.

Abe’s policies, including increasing the defense budget, lifting a ban on arms exports, visiting a shrine that memorialises Japan’s war dead, along with convicted World War II criminals and reinterpreting the pacifist constitution to allow Japan to defend other countries, have sparked concern in China.

To help combat the Japanese invaders during World War II, more than 2,000 Soviet pilots in volunteer squadrons came and defended China’s airspace, while the Soviet Red Army fought shoulder by shoulder with Chinese troops in Northeast China at the war’s final stage.

“The Chinese people will always remember those Russian soldiers and the people who died supporting the independence and liberation of the Chinese nation,” Chinese President Xi Jinping wrote in the state-run daily Russian Gazette in May this year.

“The Chinese and Russian people supported and fought alongside each other and forged friendship with blood and lives in the war against Fascism and militarism,” said Xi.

China’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, led to the death of some 20 million Chinese, according to Beijing’s estimates [Xinhua]

South African President Jacob Zuma hit back at the West’s boycott of the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow earlier last month saying the event “defines how the globe stands today”.

The annual Victory Day military parade through Red Square in Moscow marks the surrender of Nazi Germany and the Red Army’s key role in the defeat.

While Western leaders stayed away from the event, BRICS leaders Chinese President Xi Jinping and his South African and Indian counterparts Jacob Zuma and Pranab Mukherjee joined Putin at the parade and later while laying a wreath at the grave of the Unknown Soldier.

“When it comes to the commemoration today, it has been an overwhelmingly good day and a big day for the country, but I think for many of us. I think it defines how the globe stands today to some degree and I think it is very clear, and to have so many good friends come together,” Zuma told Putin later on May 9.

“I think this has been one of the days that defined the friends and relationships and everything. I think today it was clearer than any other day,” Zuma noted.

TBP and Agencies