China Uses Military Parade to Cover for Growing Weakness

In a historic gathering of authoritarian strongmen this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and more than two dozen other world leaders joined Chinese President Xi Jinping for an elaborate military parade in Beijing. But while the event was visually impressive, it was yet another sign of China’s growing weakness and insecurity.

The official purpose of the parade was to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the defeat of Imperial Japan. Tens of thousands of soldiers marched along the parade route flanked by tanks and fighter jets overhead in a clear show of force by the communist regime.

To the casual observer, the parade may seem to have vindicated China’s claims that it now rivals or has even overtaken the United States as the world’s leading great power. Xi clearly views himself as the head of a new “axis of evil” of sorts. The parade this week was notably the first time that the current leaders of China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran – the United States’ top four geopolitical rivals – were in the same place at the same time.

But Chinese dissidents and experts with extensive knowledge of the Chinese military interviewed for this column cautioned against trusting superficial impressions. In a regime that limits access to unbiased information, the truth is often far different from what appears on the surface.

The very context of the parade is a testament to this point. Xi proclaimed that it was the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which was victorious over Japan, while ignoring the central role of Nationalist forces, as well as the United States and its allies, in ending the war. Dr. Yao Zihan, a history and political science professor, called this “the first lie.”

The reality is that the Chinese Nationalist government, which had been engaged in a civil war with the communists, bore the brunt of the fighting in World War II. The communists, while engaging in some guerrilla warfare, mostly preserved their strength for the later resumption of the civil war.

This fantasy world in which the CCP operates extends beyond attempts to rewrite history. During the parade, Xi declared that China is safe, united, and prosperous – just his latest effort to distract from the glaring crises plaguing the Chinese economy and culture.

Dr. Huang Kun, a former advisor to high-ranking Chinese officials who defected to the West, described the parade as “political warfare.” He noted that “every word and image was crafted to impress or instill fear in the West” and aimed at portraying the CCP as “a guarantor of peace and prosperity.”

However, he continued, “The CCP does not represent the people of China.” Far from leading a united country, Xi is leading a society fraying at the seams. “The Chinese people know that Xi and his predecessors did not win free and democratic elections, and are usurpers exploiting China,” he added.

Another former high-ranking official who served in the Chinese military called the parade a “festival of deception for Chinese leaders” and said that CCP leadership is “obsessive in its insecurity” and “has never distrusted the military as much as it does under Xi Jinping.” Throughout Xi’s 13 years in power, nearly 20 percent of China’s generals have been probed or gone missing, while that number was zero for Xi’s two most immediate predecessors.

That same anonymous official also alleged that the People’s Liberation Army’s equipment is still woefully outdated, despite some advancements in technologies like hypersonic missiles. He noted high rates of crashes and catastrophes involving Chinese military equipment due to “unreasonable haste, negligence, and bravado.”

An incident last month is indicative of these failures. On August 11, a China Coast Guard vessel collided with a Chinese Navy guided-missile destroyer in the South China Sea while both were pursuing a Philippine Coast Guard boat. The crash was captured on video and revealed a pattern of dangerous maneuvers by Chinese maritime forces in the region.

Although the CCP has imposed a gag order on most disasters, some, such as the crash of a J-15 jet in March, were impossible to cover up. The China Observer reported that the crash revealed “poor fighter jet quality.” The aforementioned anonymous official said that the crash “accurately captures Lenin’s critique of the Soviet Party: ‘one step forward, two steps back.’”

The Chinese people are also growing more restless even as Xi tightens his grip over the country. The China Dissent Monitor has reported a significant rise in unrest in China over the past two years, with more than 7,000 protests documented from June 2022 to December 2024. Meanwhile, China’s economy is facing a dramatic slowdown in consumer spending and a real estate market collapse.

For all its theatrical grandeur, China’s military parade revealed far more than it concealed. Beneath the polished uniforms and choreographed unity lies a regime grappling with internal distrust, outdated weaponry, rising unrest, and a faltering economy. Xi Jinping’s attempts to project strength through symbolism only highlight the disconnect between the party’s narrative and China’s grim realities.

As with the CCP’s distorted retelling of World War II history, the spectacle in Beijing was less a show of confidence than a carefully staged effort to distract from profound institutional decay. The world would do well to see it for what it is.

Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.