Thanks to President Xi Jinping, the Chinese dream has become a household word in China and is fast gaining international attention. The Chinese dream, said Xi shortly after he became the top leader of the Chinese Communist Party in October 2012, is the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. This great rejuvenation has many dimensions: economic, diplomatic, cultural, and military. The military dimension, one may safely surmise, is to make China a militarily powerful country, one that will never suffer another “century of humiliation” at the hands of foreign powers.
By many indicators, China is already a formidable military power, probably second only to the United States. And there is no better way than a pompous military parade to show to the Chinese people and the rest of the world that the military dimension of the Chinese dream has already come true. However, China normally holds a major military parade on every tenth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic (e.g. 1999 and 2009), and that’s why Beijing’s decision to have such a parade in 2015 caused much speculation and concern both inside and outside China.
The official explanation, as given by the spokeswoman of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. “By hosting commemorative events with other counties,” she said, “China is to awaken each and every virtuous man’s desire for and commitment to peace, to refresh people’s memory of the history and love for peace, and to showcase China’s staunch position of upholding the victory of WWII and the post-war international order, and safeguarding world peace.”
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