Beijing’s clear, blue sky must have surprised tourists visiting the Chinese capital in recent weeks. But the smog-free capital was a man-made event. It was carefully choreographed by authorities for a “parade-blue” sky last Thursday, when China commemorated 70th anniversary of the Japanese defeat in WWII. A large military parade rolled through Tiananmen Square, with several heads of Asian states in attendance.
While the sky was clear, the awesome display of Chinese military might – coupled with President Xi Jinping’s announcement to cut his troops’ strength by 13 percent by 2017 – must have muddled many a mind in the Western establishments. They must be wondering: what is the message that China is trying to convey? Who are the prime audience? Should they even be reading anything into such things?
Because Beijing has never commemorated on this scale anything other than the decennial anniversaries of the 1949 founding of the People’s Republic of China, this military parade, which some observers are dubbing China’s largest-ever, holds significance.
And since its subject was an external aggressor of yore, the Imperial Japanese Army, there is a strong regional element to it, and by logical extension, a global connotation.
China is already locked into a territorial contest with its offshore neighbours in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. Countries like Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore feel threatened by China’s reclamation activities in those seas. The United States is wary of a potential crisis in the region but years later it still seems confused, juggling across its economic and security interests in the region.
Resenting US criticism to its marine expansion, China may just have showed its hand last week. To the astonishment of Western security analysts, the so-called “carrier-killer” ballistic missile, the Dongfeng (East wind) 21D, made its way across Tiananmen, in what seemed like a subtle warning to US aircraft carriers roaming the regional waters.
Yet that may not be all there is to audience. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could also be looking inwards. The state media seems to have sometimes gone overboard while invoking previous Japanese aggression and broadcasting current anti-pacifist measures being taken in Japan. By putting all their latest military gadgets on show, the Chinese government seems to be reminding its people that they still live in a hostile neighbourhood, which is supported by a superpower (US) that is unhappy over their rise.
Since Deng Xiaoping’s transformative time, China has time and again committed to a peaceful rise, urging its neighbours to not get intimidated and to be part of the economic progress. Yet holding this parade may seem the opposite to cooling off regional temperature. Question is, why raise a patriotic/hyper-nationalist narrative now?
Economic observers understand that China is currently undergoing a needed shift towards a more consumption-centered economy instead of one that has remained highly dependent on exports and inward FDI. That transition will be long, and it may well become painful for the Chinese urban middle class in a few years.
It is plausible that the CCP, in order to protect its performance aura, feels the need to have folks at home start coalescing around an adversary-centric nationalist narrative. That may be dangerous, but didn’t someone say “All politics is local”?
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