<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">[video=youtube;3Fe73E_Z2Ag]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fe73E_Z2Ag[/video]
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officially announced a
large-scale military parade will be held on Sep.3 2015.
This is not only the first military parade since Xi took power,
but also the first time since 1949 that any major military
parade will be held on a day other than Oct.1, the CCP’s
National Day,.
The news has created a great deal of public attention.
Party mouthpiece People’s Daily released an official
WeChat piece on Jan.26.
The piece indirectly confirms that a military parade will be
held in 2015.
It is to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the
victory over Japan in World War II.
The online piece is titled “Why Does China Hold a Military
Parade in 2015?” The piece presented four reasons:
Firstly “to display military power”;
Secondly “to intimidate Japan”;
Thirdly “to lift national morale”; and
Lastly “to show the party is in control of the army”.
Xia Ming, professor of politics at CUNY, “We see the CCP’s
military parade has a tradition that it is held after the
authority of a new leader is established.
To some extent, the move is again to claim ‘power grows
out of the gun”, a principle that the party believes in”.
According to Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po, the CCP will invite
foreign political leaders to the September parade.
The report quoted other Hong Kong media that, the deputy
minister for public security Fu Zhenghua had confirmed the
news, and Russian President Putin will attend the event.
Xia Ming, ”I think there are two points that should be
brought to attention.
First, the CCP and Russia may be setting up an axis power
of the dictatorship regime.
If taking the Shanghai Association Organization as the core
of this system, one may see that the CCP, along with Russia
and some East Asian countries, is establishing an alliance
to oppose the western world”.
The second key fact Prof. Xia Ming mentioned, is Putin’s
mass amendments on constitution and establishment
of a state security system. Putin can be an example for
Xi Jinping to follow, said Xia.
So the two countries can be intimate allies in this sense.
On the other hand, political commentator Xing Tianxing
believes other Asian countries, as well as Russia, are
always vigilant against the concept of the so-called
“Chinese Century”.
They will never really stand for the CCP’s benefits,
said Xing.
Xing Tianxing, ”This is to say, the big picture suggests that
the military parade is Xi’s display of his military and
political power to the world. It also serves as a warning
message to those sitting on the fence”.
Since the end of Cultural Revolution, the CCP has held
three major military parades, in 1984, 1999 and 2009.
Xia Xiaoqiang, political commentator, wrote a summary
of the three previous parades.
In 1984, Deng Xiaoping conflicted with Vietnam, as a sop
to the U.S. and display of his power.
In 1999, Jiang Zemin started the persecution against
Falun Gong, which has created a huge impact on China’s
society and politics ever since. Jiang held the military
parade to make a terrifying effect.
In 2009, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao showed up together
at the top of Tiananmen.
Analysts suggested Jiang was still “holding court”
even after retirement.
Xing Tianxing, political commentator, ”This time Xi made an
early announcement of the parade.
The whole country has to prepare for it from now on.
Xi’s goal is, through all these preparations, to root out all
of Jiang’s remaining forces.
In other words, the military parade and pledge of allegiance
is to let the world know China is now in Xi Jinping’s era.”
Xing commented that, every CCP move is to serve its
political goal; diplomatic moves of course do the same.
Therefore the core issue in holing a large-scale military
parade is still to solve internal political problems, said Xing.
Xing Tianxing, ”We can see this from a series of Xi’s moves.
Xi’s ultimate goal is not in intimidating the U.S. or Japan.
To be announced at this time, party media have to give a
“reasonable” statement about why the parade will be held.
All they can say is about intimidating Japan, a display of
military power, a move directed against the U.S. etc.
But certainly these are not Xi’s real purpose for holding
the parade.
The core issue that Xi really worries about
is still his anti-corruption campaign.”
A BBC Chinese report quoted Hong Kong senior China
affairs commentator Willy Lam.
Lam said, Xi had made significant personnel changes
among high-level CCP officials since taking power.
Besides his “tiger hunt” moves, there have also been
frequent substitutions between military leaders.
With such a backdrop, this year’s military parade will give
Xi an opportunity to display his military power to the
whole party, said Lam.
