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On September 3, an estimated 50,000 spectators, according to the Chinese government, and authoritarian leaders—along with left-wing representatives from U.S. allies, like Australia and South Korea—gathered in Tiananmen Square for a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Imperial Japan’s defeat in World War II.
Far from projecting strength, the parade revealed Beijing’s insecurities, exposing a regime that masks its growing troubles with revisionist history, saber-rattling, and pageantry.
Chinese Communist forces contributed very little to this defeat. It was primarily the Chinese Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek and Allied forces who put their lives on the line to fight the Japanese military. The U.S. ultimately forced Imperial Japan to surrender in 1945.
President Trump was watching the military parade—as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit that took place in Tianjin a couple days earlier—closely, pointing out the American military’s role in defeating the Japanese, while also sending a very pointed message of strength to Xi:
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 3, 2025
The Chinese Communists, in contrast, launched only low-scale guerrilla attacks against the Japanese military. Mao’s main goal was to amass more power in order to weaken and defeat Chiang’s Kuomintang (KMT). The United Front between the Communists and Nationalists was not so united after all—and casualty records prove that the KMT and Allied forces did the vast majority of the fighting.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long relied heavily on historical revisionism, whether to assert its claims over areas that were historically never under Chinese control, such as Tibet and East Turkestan, or to distort and subsequently censor sensitive events, like the Tiananmen Massacre.
Some American media outlets framed this parade as a show of China’s military might, promoting Beijing’s propaganda. This parade was rather intended to instill fear. It is essential to note, however, that contrary to the media’s claims, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) capabilities are untested in combat. The last large-scale conflict the PLA was involved in was the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, which ended in Beijing’s defeat.
Corruption and internal power struggles remain serious challenges for the PLA.
This military parade was also part of Xi’s efforts to shore up nationalism within China, framing the CCP as the sole “protector” of the Chinese nation. This comes at a time when China’s economy finds itself in a deflationary spiral, exposing the fragility of Xi’s legitimacy and the CCP’s grip on power. Urban and rural economic protests—driven by unemployment and unpaid wages—and other signs of anti-regime sentiment have been increasing across the country.
Perhaps most importantly, though, the parade highlighted significant geopolitical dynamics.
