China’s message in military parades

By Hani Awkal

No observer of international politics doubts that China is no longer the poor communist state that once stood on the margins of the modern world. It has become a vast power growing exponentially and challenging the United States and the West in reshaping the international order.
In 2015, Beijing held a military parade marking 70 years since Japan’s surrender in World War II. It was a message to the West that China was an emerging power not to be underestimated, and that it was beginning to form a global axis opposed to the Western bloc led by Washington.
It sent another message to the United States and the West with its largest military parade in history in 2019, marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. That display told the world that China is politically, economically and militarily consolidated and can be relied on to help redraw the contours of the international system.
The third and most striking milestone came three days ago with the huge and spectacular military parade held to mark 80 years since Japan’s defeat and the end of World War II, attended by the heads of state of 26 countries, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The massive parade, which involved about 13,000 soldiers and 50,000 participants in Beijing’s famous Tiananmen Square and showcased the latest offensive and defensive military technologies, reflects China’s armament strategy and its desire to expand its global influence.
The parade cost the state treasury $5 billion, about 2% of Beijing’s annual defense budget, and carried many domestic and international signals: that China is mature on all levels and capable of confronting the Western influence led by the United States.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who stood on the main platform in Tiananmen Square, injected nationalistic and enthusiastic fervor into his address as he sought to unite the Chinese people behind him and the ruling party. He also sent many messages to the world, foremost to the West, that China is a country of peace but prepared for war if necessary.
The parade’s display of modern technologies, lethal intercontinental weapons and a frightening nuclear triad reportedly capable of reaching the American heartland — these systems, presented as part of China’s arsenal, suggest that it will not accept Washington’s policy of containment or the isolation the United States seeks to impose on Beijing.
The parade revealed China’s defensive and offensive strategy and its weapons readiness that give it battlefield superiority. By parading intercontinental nuclear missiles, stealth drones, strategic aircraft, hypersonic and ballistic missiles, laser weapons and robotic wolf units, China was openly signaling a challenge to the United States and the West as a whole.
Equally, the announcement of plans to increase its nuclear warheads from some 600 now to 1,500 by 2035 indicates it is embracing an arms race to fortify itself and enhance its nuclear deterrent — messages Washington appears to be taking very seriously.
Notably, Xi invited President Putin and the North Korean leader, and this trilateral meeting — a first in history — represents a blatant challenge to Washington and suggests the emergence of an axis opposed to the West.
China, which for decades watched American ascendancy and practiced a strategy of appearing meek until becoming powerful, now openly rebuffs Washington and is prepared to compete with it internationally. It is moving quickly to prevent any fundamental shifts in the South China Sea.
Like all major powers, China is principally concerned with its own interests, and those interests are concentrated in the South China Sea, which is now fueling competition with the United States. To be fit to compete over that area, China is playing on a larger field by expanding its central role in the international system.
The United States has understood China’s signals for some time and is moving ahead with plans to try to contain and isolate it internationally, to provoke it by encircling it in the South China Sea and to neutralize it on Taiwan. At the same time, Washington plans to modernize its fleet, introduce new technologies and build a “golden shield” to provide a comprehensive defensive umbrella.
When U.S. President Donald Trump decides to rename the Department of Defense the Department of War, that would be further evidence that Washington is mobilizing to confront Chinese influence and the axis it leads with Russia. The most pressing question for future discussion is whether we face an imminent conventional war between the Chinese dragon and America, or a long, attritional Cold War and proxy conflicts.