In Beijing, on September 3rd 2015, and on the occasion of the great Chinese victory parade commemorating the defeat of the forces of Japanese fascism and imperialism in 1945, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a speech in which he stated some heartfelt truths learned in the crucible of that war.
To an audience that included leaders from all over the world except the NATO war alliance, and with Russian President Putin nearby, he stated,
The experience of war makes people value peace all the more. The aim of our commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War is to bear history in mind, honour all those who laid down their lives, cherish peace and open up the future.
He continued,
War is like a mirror. Looking at it helps us better appreciate the value of peace. …. War is the Damocles sword that hangs over mankind. We must learn the lessons of history and dedicate ourselves to peace.
And,
All countries should jointly uphold the international order and system underpinned by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, build a new type of international relations featuring win-win cooperation and advance the noble cause of global peace and development.
In the interest of peace China will remain committed to peaceful development. We Chinese love peace. No matter how strong it may become, China will never seek hegemony or expansion. It will never inflict its past suffering on any other nation. The Chinese people are resolved to pursue friendly relations with all other countries.
And,
The People’s Liberation Army of China is the people’s army. All its officers and men and women must bear in mind their responsibility of serving the people whole-heartedly, faithfully fulfil their sacred duty of protecting the nation’s security and carry out the noble mission of upholding the world peace. Here, I announce that China will cut the number of its troops by 300,000.
He then joined his guests to review the military parade that showed the world that China was no one’s colony, not British, nor French, nor German nor Japanese and never would be again. The display of troops and military hardware was a declaration that China can well defend itself if attacked so that those who choose war over peace can bring only their own destruction. The announcement of a cut in the number of its troops by 13% was a declaration of confidence in its technical abilities, and at the same time a challenge to the NATO war alliance that calls continuously for the enlargement of its forces which have Russia and China as their primary strategic targets.
But the NATO governments, who in May insulted the Russians by refusing to attend the Moscow Victory Parade, also boycotted this one, aside from the Czech president who continues to show that he has not learned how to make his spine as flexible as the rest of that gang of mediocrities. Surprisingly, perhaps, even the president of South Korea attended though she faced pressure from the Americans not to but had the courage to ignore them.
The NATO leaders refused to attend because they regret and tremble at the resurgence of China, cry endless tears for their loss of control over it, cannot tolerate the success of the Communist Party in bringing the mass of the people of China to such a high level of development, independence and sovereignty and, ultimately, see it as an enemy.
As Chinese, Russian, Cuban, Belarusian, Serbian, Egyptian, Mexican, Pakistani and other military contingents marched in solidarity with the People’s Liberation Army to commemorate the victory over the fascists of World War II the NATO war alliance continued to encourage, support and arm its fascist allies and puppets in Ukraine. Xi Xinping described the Second World War as the World Anti-Fascist War, and, “a decisive battle between justice and evil, between light and darkness, and between progress and reaction.”
There were other contradictions to be noted. The Chinese call for support of the United Nations Charter was underlined by the attendance of Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, but simultaneously undermined by the insulting presence of Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder both of whom, as the leaders of Britain and Germany, ordered their national military forces to attack socialist Yugoslavia in 1999 in violation of international law and the United Nations Charter and ordered those forces to commit war crimes and so are themselves war criminals who should be in a criminal dock instead of in the audience of an anti-fascist military parade. But the modern world is made of such dark ironies.
The reactionary forces in the west immediately ignored the Chinese declaration of peace and twisted the parade into a threat of Chinese military power, as a China “flexing its muscles” and as an attempt to distract its people from economic problems and “rising social tensions” reasons never given for American displays of military power. The western news services made a point of mentioning the presence of Chinese ships in the Bering Sea, territorial disputes with Japan, and the size of the Chinese forces, all meant to portray China as an aggressor instead of a nation seeking to maintain the peace and trying to avoid the aggression of the imperialist powers from Japan in the 30’s and 40’s to the United States and its puppets since.
Meanwhile the largest naval drills ever conducted by NATO, code named Operation Sea Breeze, continued in the Black Sea, practicing air defence, anti-submarine, logistical and damage control tests along with landing craft exercises. These exercises began just after US airborne forces including the 82nd Airborne completed large scale airborne exercises in Operation Swift Response that were conducted in Germany, Italy, Romania and Bulgaria.
The exercises were claimed to be defensive in nature but the fact is that airborne troops are used only in offensive operations and surprise attacks. The two drills seen together would indicate that the fascist junta in Kiev and its NATO allies are planning a pincer operation involving a major land attack on the Donbas and Luhansk regions to try to reach the Russian border or cut the south of the region away from the rest to make it economically unviable. The airborne forces could be used for quick drops of large forces of men onto key positions behind the front lines and the naval units would land forces from the sea protected by the anti-submarine, anti-ship and antiaircraft ships they have been practicing with.
As the Chinese President calls for peace and as the Russian president calls for a return to international law and dialogue instead of the use of threats and force the United States prepares the ground of Europe for war and for a direct confrontation with Russia. Every one of the NATO governments and all the major political parties in their bankrupt political, social and economic system, which have absorbed the miasma of hypocrisy and amorality into their very lifeblood, support this conspiracy to commit aggression, and are complicit in creating the conditions that will produce a catastrophe.
But they only seem to care about their catastrophes when it damages their immediate interests as we see with the refugee crisis sweeping across southern and central Europe and the Mediterranean, a predicted result of their aggression against and destruction of Iraq, Libya and Syria, but a result they do not want nor know to respond to. They claimed to act for reasons of humanity or the greater good when they attacked those countries but all they did was to destroy everything that we can call civilization. Now the people they attacked seek desperate haven among those who wanted to destroy them, and who now express surprise that their victims beg them for deliverance.
I have no answer to these contradictions but President Xi Jinping said something that bears repeating. Some may think it naïve, since the leaders of NATO seem only to respect power and force, but I can’t see any other way forward. He said,
“In the interest of peace, we need to foster a keen sense of a global community of a shared future. Prejudice, discrimination, hatred and war can only cause disaster and suffering, while mutual respect, equality, peaceful development and common prosperity represent the right path to take.”
But let me conclude this with his final words since they can’t be bettered;
“Let us bear in mind the great truth of history:
“Justice will prevail!
“Peace will prevail!
“The people will prevail!”
To that I can only add a nod of the head, my raised fist and a
“Right on, brother.”
