Team East Flexes Its Military Muscles

It's time for Team East to showcase its strength. China's President Xi Jinping is hosting a military parade designed to impress even Donald Trump.

Imagine a world where the U.S. President and European leaders would travel to Beijing next week.

On Wednesday, September 3rd, China celebrates 80 years since the true end of World War II. The day before, Japan had signed its surrender.

For China, the war began years before Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. Japan's aerial bombings of Shanghai and the mass atrocities in Nanjing in 1937 were a prelude to what would unfold elsewhere in the world.

The war cost 20 million Chinese lives, with only the Soviet Union suffering more casualties. So yes, it's a day worth remembering.

But the U.S. and Europe are staying away. We do not live in a world of consensus and unity.

China openly speaks of its ambition to create a new world order, one no longer dominated by the U.S. and the rest of the Western world.

A key partner in this project is Russia and Vladimir Putin. But many other countries are now also appearing in China.

It starts this weekend when the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation—a group of Central Asian countries including Russia—holds a meeting.

This year, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also attend. The relationship between China and India has often been frosty, and Modi's visit will be the first in China in seven years.

This comes as the relationship between the U.S. and India has deteriorated since the U.S. imposed tariffs on India as punishment for its large imports of Russian oil and gas. China imports even more but has not been penalized in the same way by the U.S.

Modi is not expected to attend the military parade on Wednesday, but participants from many other countries, countries from the global south trying to maneuver between the U.S. and China, will be there.

These include countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. Then there are bitter enemies of the U.S., such as Iran, Cuba, and North Korea.

Kim Jong-Un will attend the parade, his first participation in such an international gathering. Putin will be there, of course.

It will all be a display of the global role China can play as a rival to a Western bloc that no longer feels so united. Even a leader from an EU country is expected to attend, Slovakia's Robert Fico.

The highlight on Wednesday will be a military parade at Tiananmen Square, which is likely to make Donald Trump green with envy.

Trump had his own long-awaited military parade on his birthday in June (coinciding with the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary), but it was not a display that impressed the Chinese. Sloppy marching, pathetic crowds, were some of the reviews.

The last time China held a military parade of this size was in 2019 when the People's Republic of China celebrated 50 years. And China's military is now expected to showcase a lot of new weapons.

Under Xi Jinping, China has significantly upgraded and modernized its military. By 2027, China's soldiers are expected to be ready to invade Taiwan if such an order comes from the country's president.

"The Eyes of the World"

Rehearsals for the parade have been ongoing for some time and have included four new hypersonic sea combat missiles, weapons developed to take out the U.S. Navy in a future conflict in China's vicinity.

New tanks and China's newest fighter jet, the J-35A, are also expected to be showcased. During the brief conflict between India and Pakistan this spring, Pakistan used Chinese fighter jets and missiles in combat for the first time—and successfully.

So yes, Xi Jinping hopes the whole world turns its eyes to Beijing on Wednesday, even those countries that have not responded to the invitation to participate. Team East flexes its military muscles.