Beaming broadly, Chinese leader Xi Jinping seemed to bask in the moment as he led dozens of world leaders toward the Tiananmen Square rostrum in Beijing on Wednesday to watch a massive display of China’s military might.
Flanked on one side by Russian President Vladimir Putin and on the other by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Mr. Xi stepped onto the platform and took in the panorama of 10,000 People’s Liberation Army troops and hundreds of bristling, advanced weapons rolling through the capital.
“The Chinese nation is … never intimidated by any bullies,” said Mr. Xi, dressed in a gray Mao suit, in a speech broadcast around the globe. China’s rise, he said, is “unstoppable.”
Why We Wrote This
Vladimir Putin and other world leaders alienated by the West gathered in China this week – first for an economic summit in Tianjin and then a military parade in Beijing. The meetings offer a glimpse of what Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s New World Order might look like.
In addition to marking the 80th anniversary of Japan’s formal surrender at the end of World War II, Mr. Xi’s message underscores China’s present-day ambition to reshape the U.S.-led international order, experts say. Beijing is taking advantage of uncertainty generated by the Trump administration to pitch itself as the more dependable, capable global superpower.
“This image of Xi, Putin, and Kim Jong Un standing together suggests the capacity of China to … bring together like-minded partners – anti-Western and anti-liberal – to push back against … the United States in the global order,” says Rana Mitter, S.T. Lee Professor of U.S.-Asia Relations at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
“Putting together a major parade that showcases that partnership will … cement the status of China as a rising global power,” he says.
Modi enters the fold
Indeed, on Monday, Mr. Xi announced a major initiative to create “a more just and equitable global governance system” as an alternative to the U.S.-led status quo. Mr. Xi made the pitch to more than 20 world leaders attending the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the eastern Chinese city of Tianjin.
On the sidelines of both the summit and the parade, the Chinese leader has held a flurry of top-level talks to bolster diplomatic ties. This included a breakthrough meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on his first trip to China in seven years.
Relations between India and China have been strained in recent years by deadly border clashes over territorial disputes, as well as by trade and investment restrictions. Yet in a clear sign of rapprochement, Mr. Modi said peace has returned to the Sino-Indian border. India and China are “partners not rivals,” Mr. Xi told Mr. Modi on Sunday.
India’s tilt toward China comes as Delhi’s relations with the U.S. have hit a low after the Trump administration imposed 50% tariffs on U.S. imports from India, partly in retaliation for Indian purchases of Russian oil.
In Tianjin, Mr. Modi was seen holding hands with Mr. Putin, laughing as the two walked and talked. “Modi is now showing that he’s got options,” says Thomas Berger, professor of international relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. “He’s not going to sit and be bossed around” by Mr. Trump.
India has not thrown all of its weight behind China. Mr. Modi notably declined an invitation to today’s parade – which counted archrival Pakistan among the guest list – as he tries to avoid completely alienating the U.S. and Japan.
Mr. Putin, meanwhile, announced that the Russia-China “no limits” partnership had reached a new high.
Putin’s week in China
Russia and China concluded more than 20 deals covering energy, AI, aerospace, agriculture, and other areas this week. Significantly, they agreed to build the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which is expected to double Russia’s gas sales to China in about five years.
Mr. Putin also held talks on Wednesday with Mr. Kim, who made a rare trip out of North Korea to attend the parade – his first public appearance together with Messrs. Putin and Xi.
Ties between Russia and North Korea have taken on a “special, trusting, and friendly character,” said Mr. Putin, who thanked Mr. Kim for North Korean forces fighting “heroically” in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine.
In Moscow, Russian experts hailed this week’s events in China as a watershed.
Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Reuters
Despite U.S. pressure, Russia, China, and North Korea are “beginning the process that will lead to greater military, economic, and political co-operation,” says Yury Tavrovsky, Deputy Chair of the Russia-China Friendship Society, a semiofficial group.
The old “unipolar” model of world affairs is shattering into a new “multipolar” model, say Russian analysts. Russia, aligned with China, India, and other rising powers of the Global South can no longer be isolated by the West.
On the contrary, “the West, unfortunately, has self-isolated,” given its hostility toward groups like the SCO, says Andrei Klimov, deputy head of the committee on international relations of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament.
China’s military might
While China showcased its diplomatic heft and ability to convene world leaders, the Chinese military parade revealed new, advanced weapons systems capable of directly challenging the U.S. and its allies.
These include the new Dong Feng-26D intermediate-range ballistic missile, dubbed the “Guam killer” because it could strike American military bases thousands of miles away on Guam and also target U.S. Navy ships in Pacific waters. China also unveiled new hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missiles, an upgraded intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of more than 8,000 miles, as well as modern tanks, jet fighters, bombers, and unmanned drones.
As its goose-stepping military honor guards marched past and troops in combat uniforms and gear raced to their vehicles, jets and helicopters screeched past overhead. Smoke filled the air as soldiers fired an 80-gun cannon salute.
Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/AP
China’s message is “don’t mess with the People’s Republic. We are strong and we are going to be able to put the hurt on you,” says Dr. Berger.
And in addition to creating “a common patriotic narrative” for China’s population to rally around, leveraging the historic legacy of World War II could help shore up China’s legitimacy abroad, says Dr. Mitter.
For the international audience, Beijing seeks to draw a connection between China’s past of fighting foreign aggression and its present efforts to safeguard the global order, with an implied rebuke of the U.S. “Today, humanity once again faces the choice between peace or war,” Mr. Xi warned in his speech.
“China is trying to find ways in which it can project itself not just as a powerful actor in the world, but as a moral actor,” says Dr. Mitter.
Fred Weir contributed reporting from Moscow, Russia.
