China’s Military parade, a funeral for World Peace.
China held a military parade that felt much more like a Funeral for World Peace.
The 2025 China Victory Day Parade, officially the Conference to Commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, was held on Chang’an Avenue in Beijing on September 3, 2025.
The parade commenced just days after the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in which China, Russia, India, and Iran all held court and power among other countries.
A photo of the SCO wives in attendance haunts my thoughts. All the wives of SCO summit leaders are shown in a photo with Mrs. Xi Jinping at the center wearing a white kimono.
The women have their right hand raised, are they saying hello or waving goodbye?
This article is an over analysis of the visual significance behind chosen parade elements.
A parade could be defined as a moving encounter with the intention of delivering messages from sponsors to spectators.
Military Processions are not just for entertainment, they stir patriotic enthusiasm and support by evoking strong emotions and prompting action.
Center stage is set in Beijing at the Tiananmen Gate. Tiananmen Gate also known as the Gate of Heavenly Peace, stands between Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. It is a location of incredible historical importance, first built during the Ming Dynasty in 1420.
The Gate symbolizes Imperial Power and the spirit of the Chinese People, and is a source of deep national pride and reverence.
The Military procession rolls down Chang’an Avenue in-between the Gate and the Square.
In Tianaman Square, large crowds and military personal are sectioned off and monumental numbers 1945 and 2025 are hoisted into the air, rising above a staged Great Wall, reading like tombstones of Peace.
If you watched the full 4 hours 29 minuets and 10 second CTGN parade coverage, the day begins with a two hour history lesson given by two expert Chinese Officials, Zhou Bo and Victor Gao.
They give a comprehensive synopsis as to how China and the rest of the world has arrived at this crossroads, and why China stands on the right side of history.
The experts make it clear that they are ready and prepared to meet any resistance on any battlefield in any dimension, and to pay special attention to Chinese Blue Helmets and the fine print of the Cairo declaration, that America has lost her special standing a World Superpower, because she has lost her values and ideals.
The officials made clear that the Chineese UN blue helmets, make up the largest number of UN Blue helmets and that China has intentionally chosen to send them to regions that could be described as terror threats.
The implication being, we can turn them anytime we want. You won’t know where, and you won’t know when, but we can and will activate as necessary.
Spectators learned so much about how the Chineese have been feeling about the way things went, and that now conditions on the ground have changed, they are ready to step “back” into their role as number one World Supper Power.
That really these 80 years are just a blip compared with China’s over 4000 year old dynastic legacy.
One of the first orders of business was to re-establish the dates of WWII. As the World Super Power, they have now declared that WWII began in 1931 when Japan invaded China.
Not in 1939 as declared by the West.
China fought the imperialist Japanese alone for years with many gruesome battles, where Chinese people were slaughtered. In particular the atrocities of the Rape of Nanking were brought center attention.
Now, according to the New World Order, where China stands tallest, the official date for when WWII started is 1931.
After the History lesson, coverage goes to the red carpet, where dignitaries from over 25 governments were delivered to the West side and then walked through the gate down a red carpet.
Almost everyone is wearing a shiny unidentified golden medal pin that was likley given out at the SCO summit.
The TV image shows each foreign representative made small by the wide red carpet and baronet-holding-guards while the commentators announce each leader and how their territories strategic partnerships have been solidified.
There is little chatter during this portion, but repeatedly you can hear the caw of crows in the background. Now, there is a good chance that the crows are a spontaneous part of the day, but it is just as likley that this sound, that is almost entirely unnoticeable is intentional.
The superstition is to hear the caw of a crow on the day of a festival, or parade, or any ceremony of import is deeply inauspicious and worrisome. It’s a bad omen.
After what I think of as the Red Walk of Shame, the guests finally greet President XI Zinping and his wife Peng Liyuan.
A large group photo is taken, golden pins shining in the light. President Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan do mot wear the metals but stand center stage flanked to the right by Russia and the left by North Korea.
The message is clear, China, Russia and North Korea have reached an understanding. Russia and North Korea have been pinned by China.
Peng Liyuan wears a contemporary taupe colored dress that combines a traditional chineese aesthetic with a more militaristic coat dress style, grounded in the future, ready to serve the communist party in her role as First Lady (of the World).
While I have been unable to find any information on exactly what pin was handed out to commemorate this historical moment, I do know that wearing a pin is a way of declaring yourself to be a member and participant of a particular group. It is a way of identification.
The message is clear, if you have a pin, you belong to us.
This is reinforced by the footage of the group walk, all smiles and frivolity.
It should be noted, when talking about the visuals of the parade, it is very hard to believe that AI has not been heavily used. Some of the video images look much more like video games than reality, and you wonder if that is exactly the point?
We are in the age of digital false reality, impossible to tell what is real and what is fake.
Once the VIPs are seated a mass of Chinese Choir youth dressed in pressed shirts a shade of the palest light blue and white slacks, open their mouths and lift their chins and at time their fists, to sing.
The first song of the day is “Along the Songhua River” the song is about the events that China says actually started WWII and is credited with stocking national anti-Japanese sentiment.
The second song is “On the Taihang Mountains” the third, the 7th movement of the “Yellow River Cantata,” “Defending the Yellow River,” the fourth “Without the Communist Party, there would be no new China,” the final song, “The National Anthem” is sung while a gigantic Chinese Flag is raised above the world.
Each song has significance and is about defending China, raising the battle cry, and installing nationalistic pride.
After two-and-a-half hours of pre-parade-coverage, the actual parade commences.
The Video introduction starts with anticipatory triumphal music as the Great Wall of China is electrified in Gold.
You see just how long and far the Wall stretches over the forbidding mountains.
If the gates are closed you can’t get in.
The sun is shining on the Eastern wall, the Western side has gone dark.
China’s Golden Wall greeting America’s Golden Dome.
As the intro continues, a wisp of crimson silk the color of blood gliding through and entwines with an olive branch that moves like a dragon and settles below the Great Wall Tower branded 80.
Above the Wall Tower logo two roads meet together, one in red coming from the left and a golden one coming from the east that rises slightly above.
The show is starting:
Tik Tok
Tik Tok
Tik Tok
Goooooooooonnnnnnnnngggggggg
The parade opens with a pendulum of time swinging back and forth.
It counts,
1945
Tik
1955
Tok
1965
Tik
1975
Tok
1985
Tik
1995
Tok
2005
Tik
2015
Tok
2025
Gggggggggggggoooooooooooonnnnnnnnnggggggg
After the gong, the sounds of the first instruments are somber and mournful.
My interpretation, China and World Leaders are gathered to mourn and remember the 80 years of lasting Peace and friendship between the East and the West.
Give respect and honor to what was had.
That the moments of partnership will not be forgotten, but that new choices will be faced.
And now that China has said thank you,
that China has appreciated you,
that China will remember the good times,
we are going to war, I mean Peace.
We are going to Peace, through war.
China declared she is ready and eager to meet on any multi dimensional battleground.
Rows and rows of uniformed Chinese Band players hold horns, and trumpets, and drums.
The televised stock images are of being outside the forbidden city looking in.
The message is clear, the walls are now closed to you. What goes on behind them is our business, the West is now on the outside. China is once again the center of the World.
We are at Peace, but we are prepared for Peace through War.
A lot of attention was drawn to the fact that during WWII China did not have the best technology. If China had had the technology of America or Japan, the War would have ended much sooner. The point is being made that now China has the worlds leading technology.
As part of any good military parades, the Veterans were on display. They wore their different hats including the Mao’s iconic Red Star.
It has become common practice that at parades or sporting events, goodie bags are handed out. Event coordinators handed out colorful welcome packs in 2015, and colorful ones in 2025, except for the hat.
In 2015, the hats handed out were in the colors red, yellow, orange, blue, and green.
In 2025, the hats appeared to be 80% white and 20% red.
As a florist, I would never design white flower arrangements for any person of Chinese heritage without explicit permission and direction.
White is well known to be the color of death and mourning, so I have a very hard time believing that handing out white hats was anything but intentional.
White is the color of death and funerals.
We are gathered here to say goodbye to World Peace.
The rest of the parade was more straightforward classic Military iconography.
Columns of different regimented troops and weapons.
What nagged at me was just how identical the Chinese Military looked to the American Military. The camo fatigues, red crosses, and ceremonial uniforms challenging anyone to say they are not the strongest most modern military in the world.
It was like looking in a US Army mirror with 100% Asian faces returning the stare.
Unlike the American Military Parade held on June 14, 2025, the Chinese did not represent any part of the Chinese army before the formation of the People’s Republic of China in1949.
The American Military parade drew on its history going back to its 1776 foundation in the Revolutionary War.
The Chinese could have chosen to represent historically significant fighters prior to 1949, but made the deliberate choice of reinforcing the message, that China is only looking to the future.
A crowd favorite had to be the women’s militia units, especially the ones that looked like cow girls with hats and bandannas.
Once invisible regiments, like the cyber security force and digital teams, others were made to march.
The parameters of what will be in the theater of war are being made clear, as if to say, this is what we have to play with, consider this your fair warning.
We have robotic dogs, unmanned aircraft that moves as and can recalibrate independently in real time, missiles, all-weather drones, digital fighters and lots of different nuclear capabilities.
Something I think both America and China have in common is that they are ready to use their weapons. They want to see what they can do and how we can innovate.
Make money, blow things up, re-draw territory lines, get retribution, restore glory.
After intimidating colonnades of soldiers and Nucuar Weapons rolled through, President Xi took to his own armored car to stand out the sunroof and call to the troops.
As his car drove past battalions, the calls echoed, “Greetings Comrades” “Greetings Chairman” “Comrades, thank you for your service” “Serve the People.”
Finally the parade day comes to an end with President Xi delivering his final speech.
The speech is a declaration of Peace. It is a declaration of Peace through War.
The world has a choice, will it choose War or will it choose Peace?
Release the 80 peace doves.
Release the colorful balloons.
The Chinese Military Parade was a funeral for 80 years of World peace. Now a closed chapter, the New Wold Order has begun.