Chinse President Xi Jingping during a military parade. (Photo : Reuters)
The Chinese government confirmed on Tuesday that China will hold a "grand military parade" in commemoration of the cessation of the Second World War.
After the announcement from Beijing regarding the 70th anniversary event, Western media outlets, including the Associated Press (AP), Yahoo! News and The Diplomat, have firmly placed the spotlight on a WeChat message published on the account of the People's Daily, described by AP as the Communist Party of China's "official mouthpiece."
The content of the WeChat message was in fact taken from a report released by a Hong Kong publication. The aggressive sentiment explicitly expressed in the cited piece resulted in headlines like, "China to hold military parade to 'frighten Japan'."
Another example even brings the White House into the picture by declaring: "China's Military Parade: A Warning to Japan and the U.S."
For reasons that are not clear, Tuesday's China Daily article, titled "Farce to fuss over China's military parade," was passed over by journalists whose content was published on the day after it was released online. The China Daily writer delivered what one would expect from an article with such a headline, as it repeatedly referred to the "World Anti-Fascist War" and "peace-loving people."
It would be inaccurate to label the China Daily piece as a mere propaganda tool that is aimed at appeasing the Japanese establishment and its allies. While the author attempts to lay to rest any notions that paint the parade as a nationalistic exercise, whereby a gauntlet is symbolically thrown down at the feet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the horrific experience of China during World War II is highlighted without any reservations whatsoever.
In addition to the "comfort women" of the conflict--a number of the women are still alive today--30 million casualties are remembered, including the 300,000 who died in the "brutal" Nanjing Massacre of 1937.
The writer asserts China's right to use the military parade to "highlight its pains and contributions" during the war. Readers are also asked to "keep a close eye" on the Japanese leader's speech later this year.
In conclusion, the China Daily reaffirms China's status as a "peace-loving country" and asks the international community's "peace-loving people" to stand alongside the Asian economic giant in 2015.
