Now China has the largest standing army in the world, at over two million. Seventy years ago, China was still the “ sick man of Asia ,” a relatively helpless victim of Japan’s invasion until the American bombs Little Boy and Fat Man ended their war. The symbolism won’t be lost on those watching. And authorities have promised blue skies on parade day in chronically smog-choked Beijing, which has seen record low levels of air pollution in the days leading up to the parade, thanks to suspension of work at over 10,000 factories in the area and restrictions on private cars. A massive military parade on Tiananmen square will show off the latest People’s Liberation Army technology, replete with ZTZ-99A tanks, YJ-12 supersonic anti-ship missiles loaded on the back of camouflage trucks, and J-10 fighters streaming smoke trails in yellow, blue, pink, and indigo. This year’s Victory Day will, for the first time, mark a three-day national holiday - an unexpected surprise, although, as grousers have noted online, everyone will work Sunday to make up for it. But younger Chinese, born into a drastically different country, feel more ambivalent towards such government-sponsored patriotism. 3’s Victory Day, the 70th anniversary of Japan’s official surrender after World War II, which has inspired jingoism in generations who remember their parent’s horror stories of the war.
No one stops to solicit his help, but Miao insists he is there to “check there’s no trouble.” He is playing his small part to prepare for Sept. He proudly wears a spiffy blue polo shirt, with a red armband on one sleeve declaring him a neighborhood volunteer. Above him, a red banner hangs from a pole, the characters for “watchpost” fluttering in the dry air. But the domestic message is more important still, with military strength conferring legitimacy on the government, which takes great pains to remind its citizens that the ruling Communist Party made the country strong after years of foreign oppression.īEIJING - In a hutong alleyway in the Chinese capital of Beijing, a sixty-seven year-old man surnamed Miao sits on a folding chair, watching life walk past. Externally, the parade sends a signal of China’s resurgent military power, one no longer feeble in the face of outside aggression. Seventy years ago, China was still the “ sick man of Asia,” a relatively helpless victim of Japan’s invasion until the American bombs Little Boy and Fat Man ended their war.
BEIJING - In a hutong alleyway in the Chinese capital of Beijing, a sixty-seven year-old man surnamed Miao sits on a folding chair, watching life walk past.