This past week China enjoyed the 70th anniversary of the victory over Japan during World War 2.  It’s very strange that a country that was completely militarily decimated and nearly conquered by a foreign country and saved largely in part by foreign military, would then go on to celebrate 70 years later by throwing a huge parade celebrating the event, heavily censoring it it from foreign media, and parading their military up and down the streets to show the changes they have made.  But it seems this is typical of a Communist country.

The President of China stood where this guard was during the parade.

The Forbidden City with Mao ZeDong’s famed photo.

The way Beijing dealt with the parade was swift and efficient.  Security became more rigid a few weeks before parade, and the weekend of the parade the city was completely shut down.  No one was allowed to come into the city, the airport was shut down for hours, trains and buses stopped moving to prevent any dangers from entering the city, shops were forced to close down, school was let out and we had a 4 day weekend, and most major tourist and shopping districts were completely closed off.  It was incredibly inconvenient since many subway lines were closed, nothing was open so there wasn’t much to do or see.  Even traffic was controlled so if you had a even or odd license plate, you were designated which days you could drive, otherwise face a massive fine.  Factories were shut down to stop pollution, and birds were chased away by special bird chasing mutant hybrid robot killing machine dogs.  Imagine trying to do that in New York city….see how many people will complain.

A view of the entire Forbidden City

Built in 1420, one of the most historically significant places in China

The parade itself was lackluster.  Another Communist parade showcasing military might and weaponry and little else.  Even the commentators were force fed propaganda lines, my personal favorite being: “China is a peaceful nation and will always strive for peace……..but we will never hesitate to fight in order to keep the peace.”

What is the purpose of this parade?  China’s National Day is on October 1st, which is usually a good time to create craze of blind patriotism throughout the nation.  China’s go-to method for creating a patriotic frenzy is anti-Japan rhetoric.  Whenever there are problems in China (hint hint: China’s looming financial and economic crisis) they always turn to Japan in order to steer the public eye away from the problems on hand, and to force them to remember all the horrible things Japan did as the government attempts to sweep these looming disasters under the table and away from the public eye.  It has never failed and the best way to keep people from fighting each other or fighting the government, is to turn to a common scapegoat to prevent riots.  Unfortunately that scapegoat will always be Japan.

70 years since the end of the Japanese Invasion in 1945

The courtyards are all symmetrical

Location: Tiananmen square