Special to CosmicTribune.com, September 5, 2025
By Richard Fisher
On Sept. 3 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping hosted his fourth major military parade spectacle, this time marking the 80th anniversary of Japan World War Two defeat, for what China calls “Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.”
Such parade spectacles are a major weapon in what Chinese strategists call “cognitive warfare,“ or simply the ability to mobilize and direct broad information to shape perceptions in order to influence the actions of your enemy.
Of the parade a June 27 state media People’s Daily report states, “The commemoration events serve as a solemn tribute to the Chinese people’s arduous and heroic resistance against Japanese militarist aggression, reaffirming the Chinese people’s steadfast commitment to the path of peaceful development and to upholding world peace, carrying far-reaching and profound significance.”
A different view is offered by Hudson Institute fellow, U.S. Naval Academy professor and Chinese émigré Dr. Miles Yu, who in an Aug. 30 Linkedin post stated of this parade:
“Ostensibly a tribute to the national heroes, it is, in reality, a carefully orchestrated historical faux pas — a political spectacle designed to glorify the CCP, vilify a long-transformed, democratic, free, and peaceful Japan, and deceive the Chinese people.”
The CCP actually played no major role in the war against Japan; Mao Zedong’s strategy was to let Japan wear down the forces of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), so that after the war with great assistance from the Soviet Union, he could defeat the KMT— which worked.
No prominent Western democratic leaders attended this parade, and even United States Ambassador to China David Perdue skipped the parade, while Japan and Taiwan discouraged prominent leaders from attending the parade.
But China sought to create the image of world respect by leveraging the just concluded Tianjin summit of the Chinese-led proto-alliance Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The parade’s political projection was enhanced by the attendance of most SCO member state leaders — except India’s Prime Minister Nahendra Modi — totaling 26 state leaders.
China deliberately created the impression that its “Axis of Evil” is a real alliance, showing multiple images of the Xi Jinping with Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un, and occasionally with Pakistan’s President Sharif — all nuclear armed dictatorships.
Messages Of The Weapons Include . . .
The Sept. 3 collection of weapons has a number of messages:
• To remind the Chinese people of the futility of opposing the CCP;
• To convey to the United States that China’s growing nuclear missile power and anti-missile power is creating a new global balance of power;
• To warn the people of Taiwan that the United States and its allies cannot save them from an eventual Chinese invasion to destroy their democracy;
• To warn global leaders that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will soon be projection its power around the globe.
An Aug. 22 People’s Daily article notes this parade, “will be the first of its kind since China embarked on a new journey to advance Chinese modernization on all fronts,” or the general PLA modernization reforms that date to late 2015.
This article further notes that the parade will include “45 echelons,” but only about 22 will feature new and older weapons — all of which are in PLA service — and unofficial Chinese sources indicate that about 70 major weapon systems will be displayed in the parade.
. . . And, Golden Dome Cannot Save America
A key message conveyed by the new weapons revealed in the parade is that the United States cannot be saved by President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome national missile defense; The PLA’s strategic forces will retain its ability to deter, coerce and attack the United States.
Perhaps the most powerful new nuclear weapon revealed was the DF-5C silo-based liquid fueled intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
Previously thought to be a future 10-warhead armed version, in the parade it only showed one large warhead, but with the parade’s Chinese commentator saying it was capable of “global strike coverage,” unofficial Chinese commentators have speculated it is a Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) capable of attacking the U.S. from its southern approaches, to counter Golden Dome.
The new DF-61 ICBM looks like a modified DF-41 seen in previous parades and uses the same 16-wheel transporter, so the ICBM missile is likely more capable, perhaps armed with multiple Hypersonic Glide Vehicle warheads, again, to defeat Golden Dome.
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