China to hold military parade Sept. 3 for 80th anniv. of end of WWII
KYODO NEWS - 16 hours ago - 17:20 | World, All
China said Tuesday it will hold a military parade in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Sept. 3 to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, with President Xi Jinping set to deliver a speech on the occasion.
The parade to commemorate what Beijing calls its victory in the 1937-1945 War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression will "display new-type combat capabilities such as unmanned intelligent systems, underwater combat units, cyber and electronic forces and hypersonic weapons," the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend the event. In May, Xi joined a ceremony in Moscow to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe that Russia observes as Victory Day as well as a military parade held in Red Square.
China plans to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit involving Russia in Tianjin near Beijing this fall, with leaders of member countries likely to attend the war anniversary events in the Chinese capital.
The regional organization currently has 10 members -- China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Iran and Belarus.
As part of events to mark the 80th war anniversary, China said it will also hold ceremonies on July 7 to commemorate the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937 that triggered the start of a full-blown war with Japan as well as on Dec. 13 to mourn victims of the massacre in Nanjing committed by Japanese troops in the same year.
A skirmish between troops of Japan and China near the stone bridge in southwestern Beijing, also known as Lugou Bridge, developed into a full-scale conflict that lasted until Japan's surrender to the Allied Powers in 1945.
China claims the Japanese army slaughtered over 300,000 people in the Jiangsu Province city, formerly called Nanking. In contrast, estimates by Japanese historians place the death toll of Chinese civilians and soldiers between the tens of thousands and 200,000.
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