China will be hosting a grand military parade in Beijing this week. And the event would be one the largest diplomatic huddle in recent times. At least 25 heads of states will be attending the parade on Tiananmen Square.
The parade will also mark the 80-year anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be missing the parade, but most of the SCO attendees will be present. India’s Modi landed back in New Delhi on the evening of September 1 after a four-day visit to Japan and China.
He held bilateral meetings with both China’s Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Modi’s meeting with the Chinese leader was seen as a diplomatic upswing for both nations, which have shared strained ties since a military standoff in 2020.
Vladimir Putin- Kim Jong Un - Xi Jingping
Interestingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un will be there. It is North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's first visit to China since 2019, and the first time he will appear in public with Xi and Russia's Vladimir Putin together.
All eyes will be on the seating arrangements of Xi, Putin and Kim and how they interact with each other in a photo opportunity likely to be highly choreographed.
Most Western leaders will stay away, but Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic will attend. Both are close to Putin and broke ranks with th
Almost all of the nations attending the grand parade have been hit by sanctions of US President Donald Trump. And political experts are saying that Beijing is now touting itself as a non-Western style of collaboration in the region and seeks to be an alternative to traditional alliances.
So, what will the world see at the parade? Officials have mostly been tight-lipped over the list of hardware to be displayed at the parade. According to the Chinese government, much of the equipment included in the 70-minute parade is being revealed for the first time.
In addition to the troops, the parade will involve hundreds of aircraft and ground armaments, all of them domestically made and battle-ready.
Many observers will view the weapons on display through the lens of a potential future conflict with Taiwan. A new series of anti-ship missiles, the Ying Ji -- "eagle attack" in Chinese -- is expected to be unveiled. These cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles could prove significant in combating the US navy.
Over 1,000 musicians will be arranged in 14 rows to symbolise the years of China's resistance -- official CCP histories date the war from Japan's 1931 invasion of Manchuria.
Spectators in Tiananmen Square will sit on green, red and gold chairs to symbolise fertile land, the people's blood and peace, as per Chinese media.
