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It seems to me that's one of the points in the parades: "No more wars (China's Xi also announced in his speech during the parade that the Chinese will have a 300,000 cut in its military-- I think that's the number), but if anyone wants war, we are ready to defend ourselves." Anyway, that's my impression from the parades.
It's hard to imagine with it's huge loss in the previous wars China would be interested in initiating more wars.
I agree with pennyone(?) that in the world today the U.S. has a major role in world peace/war.
Beside Russia and China, which other countries also had military parades celebrating the 70th anniversary of WW2 victory? What's your impression?
Chinese and the Russians suffered heavily from Japanese and German onslaught of WW2. 70th anniversary of WW2 of China and Russia was meant to show a show of strength against the west. China and Russia are also forming a military bloc and economic bloc that can rival the West. Russia is pushing for an Eurasian Union. Also the Chinese and the Russians want to due away with the dollar backed economy. Sad thing about China and Russia is that their economies are hurting and going into free-fall. But the world war 2 parades are designed to stick a middle figure towards America.
Yes, maybe you should take a quick look at Chinese history and see if it's actually as warlike as you make it out to be.
In 1776, on the eve of the US War of Independence, Qing China was by far the wealthiest and still a really powerful nation. Did it invade anyone at that time?
Let's go even further back. Take 1410, at the beginning of the Ming, when little Portuguese ships were just beginning to venture out into the Atlantic, the Ming Chinese fleet under Admiral Zheng He sailed with hundreds of treasure ships to the Indian Ocean, and even the Red Sea....did they invade anyone or caused "havoc"? The answer would be no.
The Chinese were happy to stay in their own little world until the greedy opium pushers from Britain banged down their doors in the Opium War of 1838. The Chinese have learned their lesson.
The invasion of Taiwan will happen only if certain conditions are met (by law). Taiwan was part of Qing China, and it was ceded to Japan under duress in 1895. After WWII, it was returned to the government of China at that time, and it has been the home of that government ever since. An invasion of Taiwan Island by Mainland China is an internal matter, and a continuation of a civil war. If the US decides to prevent a Chinese reunification by butting its nose in it, then the message from the parade is obvious.
Did you not see the DF 21D and the DF 26...two classes of incredibly advanced ASM specifically designed to take out carrier battle groups?
History doesn't matter, and not only because it's written by the victors (or autocrats).
The issue of Taiwan is not an internal matter if Taiwan wants to be independent from China. The permission of law does not erase the fact that an invasion of Taiwan would be immoral and a war crime, and a silly parade will not dissuade foreign intervention.
Sinking a US carrier is tantamount to shooting down Air Force One (with the president in it) and the Chinese know it would be the end of their government, so it will never happen (at least for the next few decades).
Chinese and the Russians suffered heavily from Japanese and German onslaught of WW2. 70th anniversary of WW2 of China and Russia was meant to show a show of strength against the west. China and Russia are also forming a military bloc and economic bloc that can rival the West. Russia is pushing for an Eurasian Union. Also the Chinese and the Russians want to due away with the dollar backed economy. Sad thing about China and Russia is that their economies are hurting and going into free-fall. But the world war 2 parades are designed to stick a middle figure towards America.
Even combined their militares are smaller than that of the US, esp. considering the US's foreign bases and functional carrier battle groups (of which China and Russia have neither). All three know this. Strength is not shown by prancing around.
There is a fine line between bombastic self-glorification and a well-justified pride over past sacrifice that overcame harrowing adversity. By Western reckoning, tanks rumbling down Red Square are strange and silly paeans to fallen dead, and more like petulant saber-rattling. Maybe so. But every time that I hear "Vstovai, strana ogromnaya" ("Arise, enormous [sleeping] nation"), and see those freckle-faced kids goose-stepping in formation past the Kremlin walls, I do not think of a jilted ex-superpower struggling to rekindle its lost hegemony, or a conniving dictator putting on a glitzy show to numb and mollify his own people. Instead my eyes tear up, and I'm overcome with an almost religious feeling of belonging and transcendence. It's as if all of those people who starved to death in the blockade of Leningrad 74 years ago somehow reach out from their mass-graves in Piskaryovskoye Cemetery and gently whisper that it's going to be OK, that now this strutting is all for show, and will remain a show, so long as it's only strutting.
Do we not celebrate our defeat of the British? Lots of citizens dressed as soldiers and soldiers in parades all around the country. Every common in small towns. British and French have large parades involving present military and veterans. If others like to show their new arms and missiles; good want to see them for military reasons.
History doesn't matter, and not only because it's written by the victors (or autocrats).
The issue of Taiwan is not an internal matter if Taiwan wants to be independent from China. The permission of law does not erase the fact that an invasion of Taiwan would be immoral and a war crime, and a silly parade will not dissuade foreign intervention.
Sinking a US carrier is tantamount to shooting down Air Force One (with the president in it) and the Chinese know it would be the end of their government, so it will never happen (at least for the next few decades).
You do know that both China and the US have nukes. Your kind of bluster is what brings about war, where America thinks what is right is right. Yes, if the Us is willing to intervene, then those Chinese missiles are for the US carriers. A shooting down of a Chinese jet or a sinking of a Chinese ship, in the context of war, by Americans would also be a declaration of war against China. Nobody wins in a nuke shootout. The real question is... is Taiwan more important to the US or China?
I can tell you that if the Chinese government loses Taiwan, it will be overthrown by the Chinese people. So, Beijing has nothing to lose but to go all out. That parade is just the tip of what China has, as it is not in the habit of showing its latest toys. I hope the US and China do not go to war. But the parade is meant to show the world that China isn't afraid of anybody.
Even combined their militares are smaller than that of the US, esp. considering the US's foreign bases and functional carrier battle groups (of which China and Russia have neither). All three know this. Strength is not shown by prancing around.
So you're saying China should stop these parades and show real strength by attacking a real sovereign country, like Iraq? Maybe Russia should also get its old mojo back by taking over the Ukraine? Forget about these parades and go for the real thing! Good advice.
Beside Russia and China, which other countries also had military parades celebrating the 70th anniversary of WW2 victory? What's your impression?
Sabre rattling.
Kinda like 2 high schoolers saying mine is bigger than yours
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