A call to not lead humanity into another war

China's decision to hold a military parade on Sept 3 to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II serves important domestic and global purposes.

Domestically, the idea is to rally the Chinese people around a new shared national history, one constructed around the joint resistance against foreign invasion and the struggle to create a new modern, prosperous and cohesive nation. And the display of military hardware is meant to suggest that China has the military wherewithal befitting a great power and can keep its people safe, important because China for almost two centuries suffered defeat after defeat and invasion after invasion.

Globally, the commemoration is meant to draw attention to China's role in WWII, illustrating that it played as important a role as the US, the Soviet Union and Great Britain, and that China, too, stood on the side of the good. Although in the West China's role in WWII still receives little attention, in China it is now seen as one of the most crucial periods in its history.