Japan Institute for National Fundamentals

　　　　　Fighting with Japan in World War II was the Republic of China, not the Communist-controlled People's Republic of China (PRC). The PRC was not among the winner members of World War II. The PRC's implementation of a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of victory against Japan amounts to the forgery of history. The PRC was founded in 1949 well after World War II. The PRC's first international war was its intervention to the Korean War, where PRC forces invaded South Korea and fought against the United Nations forces. The attendance of the South Korean president and the U.N. secretary general amounts to their endorsement of the PRC's past invasion into South Korea.
　　　　　In his address to the parade on September 3, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated a policy given in the latest defense white paper published in May, saying China would not seek hegemony or expansionism. But China's land reclamation and base construction in the South China Sea indicates nothing more than its expansionism.

Xi's pledge to cut 300,000 soldiers is not disarmament
　　　　　We must analyze this point in connection with a September 1 report by U.S. wire service Bloomberg on the realignment of the People's Liberation Army. The report said China would announce plans within this month to joint the army, navy, air force and Second Artillery Corps under a unified command and to reduce current seven Military Districts into four and was considering merging the General Logistics and General Armaments departments. The reorganizational changes could allow China to deploy forces far from its coastline.
　　　　　Among the recent troop reductions, the cut of one million soldiers under Deng Xiaoping in 1985 aimed to shift from Mao Zedong's people's war concept to modern mechanized composite group forces. The reduction of 500,000 soldiers under Jiang Zemin in 1997 sought to slim down logistic units. The latest pledge to cut 300,000 soldiers may represent not a simple disarmament but a plan to improve China's power projection capability for the information age. In this sense, it is clear that the pledge would be a threat to Japan and the United States.

Newest weapons displayed in the military parade
　　　　　The KJ-2000, which was the first aircraft to appear in the parade, is an airborne early warning and control that can effectively search in areas of the Air Defense Identification Zone in the East China Sea that ground-based radars cannot cover. Carrier-based J-15 jet fighters also flew in the parade.
　　　　　Particularly remarkable were ballistic missiles that leave and re-enter the earth's atmosphere, including the short-range DF-16 missile targeting bases in Okinawa, the DF-21D anti-ship missile against U.S. aircraft carriers and Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force major combatants in waters around Japan, the intermediate-range DF-26 called Guam killer, and the Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV)-warhead intercontinental DF-5B that can reach U.S. Continent. Making the first official appearance was the YJ-12 anti-ship cruise missile that can fly only within the atmosphere but sea skimmer carrying a highly explosive, boost its terminal speed up to Mach 2.2, and is difficult to intercept.
　　　　　Given these facts, a report headlined "300,000 Force Reduction, Emphasizing Priority of Peace" on the September 3 evening edition of the Asahi newspaper that took Xi’s speech at face value may look too naive or be suspected as indicating some hidden intention.

Fumio Ota is a JINF Planning Committee Member and retired Vice Admiral of Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force.