President Xi to give a speech ahead of victory day parade
Print Edition
PRESIDENT Xi Jinping will deliver a speech tomorrow morning before the military parade in Beijing to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The commemoration will start at 10am.
Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, will later inspect the troops.
The parade will be broadcast live on state media, including China Central Television.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin, South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will take part in the events to celebrate victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, 70 years after Japan formally surrendered to the Allies aboard a US ship.
The attendance of 30 foreign leaders is a sign that China’s long-undervalued contributions to that victory in 1945 are finally getting their proper due, China says.
The United Nations has brushed aside Japanese complaints over Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s plan to attend the parade, saying that the World War II commemoration was an opportunity to reflect on the past.
Japan said the UN should remain “neutral” and shun the military parade.
However, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Ban had attended similar events during the year, notably in Poland, Ukraine and Russia.
Ban “hopes that all countries will use this time to reflect on the past and obviously look to the future,” Dujarric said.
China described Japan’s complaints as “irritating.”
At a daily news briefing, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “At the moment the international community is commemorating the 70th anniversary of the World Anti-Fascist War, Japan’s so-called protest or remarks sound very irritating, which is deliberately provocative.
“We hope Japan can truly face up to and deeply reflect on its history of militarism with an honest and modest attitude.”
Former Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama — who issued a landmark apology for the war in 1995 — will be present in Beijing in a personal capacity, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is staying away.
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