Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) said the goal of Thursday’s military parade in Tiananmen Square to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II was to “bear history in mind, honor all those who laid down their lives, cherish peace and open up the future.”
Given that the rendition of history being commemorated was one conceived by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), that many of those who “laid down” their lives — Nationalist troops, for example — are not acknowledged by the party and that Beijing continues to show how little it cherishes peace through its aggressive nationalism and bullying of neighbors, it can only be assumed that the future being opened up is one where Xi rules on high without pesky lawyers, rights activists and other annoyances of a civil society.
However, Xi should receive some credit for his showmanship: The blue skies created by shutting down factories and limiting automobile use in the capital; the suit he wore in the retro style of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東); the boxy Red Flag sedan he used to review the troops; the orders barring civilians from being anywhere near the square and banning residents along the parade route from watching the parade from their balconies or opening their windows — so reminiscent of the way people were cleared from the streets and shop/house windows ordered shut when the Chinese emperors made their annual trips from the Forbidden City to the Temple of Heaven — and the trucks filled with white-haired CCP veterans and a few token Nationalist ones.
That should be all the credit Xi gets.
His talk of “the unyielding Chinese people” fighting against the Japanese sidestepped not only the losses by the Republic of China’s troops, but Mao’s decision to stay largely on the sidelines, letting the Nationalists and the Japanese battle while he was building up the CCP for a post-war conflict with whichever side won. The CCP’s claiming credit for a victory won by others is simply self-aggrandizement.
That is something that Xi knows a lot about. The parade was the latest example of Xi’s fondness for self-promotion. His most recent predecessors had just one chance to preside over such a military display: The parades that are held every 10 years to mark the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. By that calendar, Xi would not have the chance to show off for another four years. By inflating the commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the war’s end, Xi gets to have two parade parties.
The parade also served as a reminder that Xi and his cohort remain oblivious to the fact that displays of highly polished missiles and tanks are not enough to erase the world’s memory of other tanks in that square and the blood-soaked pavement stones on June 4, 1989. That is the image of Tiananmen Square that no amount of whitewashing can erase.
The rote phrases Xi uttered in his speech from atop the Tiananmen Gate rang hollow on so many levels. He said “prejudice and hatred only bring misery and conflict.” True, but the Tibetans and Uighurs, who have suffered for decades from Beijing’s Han-centric and CCP-centric prejudice and oppression, are unlikely to take much succor from his words.
The show of force belied Xi’s talk of peace, and his announcement that 300,000 troops would be cut from the 2.3 million strong People’s Liberation Army will still leave China with the world’s biggest military. Beijing has long been working to streamline and upgrade the PLA, emphasizing its air force, navy and high-tech forces over ground troops. Announcing the cutback, which has been in the works for a while, was simply another example of Xi’s flair for the dramatic.
As usual, it is not what Beijing says that matters, but what it does. The image that it has tried to craft as a force for peace and stability was not the message the world took from Thursday’s theatrical display.
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