China holds epic V-Day parade

(Xinhua) Updated: 2015-09-03 15:09

Guard of Honor march through the Tian'anmen Square during the military parade on Sept 3, 2015.[Photo/www.news.cn]

The parade was also inherently in line with the defensive strategy of the world's second largest economy.

A signatory of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, China has repeatedly vowed to adhere to the policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons and the policy that it will, unconditionally, not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states and nuclear-weapon-free zones.

China is the only nuclear-weapon country that has publicly made the pledge.

"It's just like when you have a knife, you can use it either for offense or defense," said Chen Zhou, director of the National Defense Policy Research Center of the Academy of Military Sciences of China's People's Liberation Army. "It is your strategy behind that really matters."

China's latest white paper on military strategy issued this year underscored its principles of "defense, self-defense and post-emptive strikes."

The high-profile V-Day parade concluded at about 11:40 a.m., with some 70,000 white doves and 70,000 balloons released into the sky over Tian'anmen Square to make a symbol of peace.

Seventy years after the victory of the war, there are still few people ignoring historical facts, denying and even beautifying the invading history, which is sheer contempt of history, damage to international order and provocation to peace, an editorial published on Thursday's People's Daily said.

The parade will send a signal to the world to remember history and cherish peace, it stressed.

"I was not aware of how technologically advanced the Chinese army is (before I came here)," said Serbian formation leader Marko Marjanovic, adding that parades are a perfect way to commemorate countries' warring past.

"Serbian people cherish the tradition of (commemorating the end of) WWII. Our country, which was Yugoslavia at the time, was conquered by foreign occupying force and we also fought for freedom in the same way (as the Chinese)," Marjanovic said.

"We see the similarities in there... We see that our and the Chinese contribution was positive in WWII, and we want to maintain that tradition further on," he said.