MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
China celebrated the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II on Wednesday in Beijing. Some two dozen foreign heads of state attended a carefully choreographed military parade. Front and center? The leaders of Russia and North Korea. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul, where people were watching closely.
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UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIERS: (Chanting in non-English language).
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: China's leader Xi Jinping stood between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the rostrum overlooking Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Laser weapons, hypersonic missiles and troops in precise lockstep moved past them. Xi Jinping shook hands with a few World War II veterans, all in their 90s and 100s. In a speech, Xi praised China's sacrifices and contribution to defeating fascism.
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PRESIDENT XI JINPING: (Through interpreter) Chinese people fought with an iron will against a powerful enemy and built a great wall with their flesh and blood. They achieved their first total victory in modern times in resisting foreign invasion.
KUHN: Historians, though, point out that China's then ruling nationalist government and troops did most of the fighting, and the Communist Party didn't take power until four years after the war. In a speech earlier this week, Xi hailed China's contribution to the postwar order, in which China was a founding member of the United Nations. Critics point out that it was the nationalist government that first joined the U.N. Wang Wen is a former editor at the state-run newspaper the Global Times and currently an international relations expert at Beijing's People's University. He says the postwar order was intended to prevent a repeat of World War II, and China is committed to keeping it that way.
WANG WEN: (Through interpreter) Through this parade, China wants to show the world that it is a staunch defender of the postwar international order. We hope to demonstrate opposition to hegemony and power politics.
KUHN: Xi Jinping says that the world is now witnessing changes not seen in a century, especially the rise of China and the decline of western democracies. China's leaders envision a new global order based on harmony, cooperation and mutual respect, or in Xi Jinping's words, a community of shared destiny. Nadege Rolland is a distinguished fellow in China studies at the National Bureau of Asian Research, a private think tank. She says that the envisioned community seems to include a lot of the authoritarian leaders watching China's parade.
NADEGE ROLLAND: This is the core of this community of destiny that believes in autocracy and statism and illiberalism and historical revisionism, just to assert their power over their people.
KUHN: The parade today was the first time Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un had met in one place. The three did not sit down for a formal meeting this time, but they could do so soon, argues Doo Jin-ho, director of the Eurasia Research Center at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, a private think tank in Seoul.
DOO JIN-HO: (Through interpreter) They could hold trilateral meetings of their defense and foreign ministers. I don't think it'll be too long until there's a North Korea-China-Russia summit.
KUHN: Doo argues that Xi, Putin and Kim could start cooperating on a global level. And that, he says, could make things very difficult for many countries from Ukraine and South Korea to the U.S.
Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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