China proclaims peace at military parade

BEIJING

Chinese President Xi Jinping lauded his country as a major power and a force for world peace on Thursday as he presided over a spectacular military parade marking the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II.

With concerns rife over China’s rise, Mr Xi announced that the People’s Liberation Army — the world’s largest military — would be reduced by 300,000 personnel, although the defence ministry said the cuts would mainly fall on outdated units and non-combat staff.

“War is the sword of Damocles that still hangs over mankind,” Mr Xi said. “We must learn the lessons of history and dedicate ourselves to peace.”

But moments later new missiles dubbed “carrier-killers”, which experts say could change the balance of power with the United States, rolled through the square, in an unmistakable show of strength.

The mixed messages drew a rebuke from Japan which said it was “disappointed” by Mr Xi’s speech for focusing too much on the past and for its lack of “rapprochement” between the Asian powers, the world’s second- and third-largest economies.

With disquiet growing over China’s increasing assertiveness in territorial disputes, most Western leaders stayed away from the extravaganza in Tiananmen Square, where Chinese troops crushed democracy protests in 1989.

After a 70-gun salute, thousands of troops marched in formation through the square, with tanks and missiles following, while nearly 200 aircraft performed a flypast in blue skies overhead.

The immaculate, choreographed ranks of soldiers included a detachment from Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin was the highest-profile foreign guest.

China has repeatedly insisted the parade was not aimed at any particular country, including Japan, which it says is insufficiently contrite over wartime atrocities.

“The unyielding Chinese people fought gallantly and finally won total victory against the Japanese militarist aggressors, thus preserving China’s 5,000-year-old civilisatione,” Mr Xi said.

He described the eight-year conflict, in which historians say 15 to 20 million Chinese died, as “a decisive battle between justice and evil, between light and darkness”.ajor country in the world”.

Decades of double-digit budget increases have transformed China’s military, giving Beijing the confidence to push a programme of artificial island building in the South China Sea and vigorously proclaim its sovereignty over disputed outcrops controlled by Japan.