West leaders snub Beijing war parade

BEIJING: From Belarus to Vanuatu, China yesterday issued a list of world leaders attending next week’s huge military parade to mark Japan’s defeat in World War II that was notable for its absences.

The display, a show of strength which comes as Beijing takes a more assertive stance regionally, will see 12,000 soldiers and 500 pieces of hardware move past Tiananmen Square.

Chinese officials listed 24 heads of state and government as attending, with Russian President Vladimir Putin, South Korea’s Park Geun-Hye and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma among the most prominent. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will also go.

Notable among the absentees on the list was North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who has yet to visit Beijing despite China being his country’s key diplomatic protector. Pyongyang will send politburo member Choe Ryong-hae.

“It is up to foreign countries to decide on who to send,” said Zhang Ming, a deputy foreign minister. “As the old Chinese saying goes, ‘anyone who comes is our guest’. We welcome them all.”

Communist China generally shies away from the vast annual demonstrations of military might that were a hallmark of the Soviet Union, normally holding such events once a decade to mark the foundation of the People’s Republic.

It has struggled to attract worldwide interest for the parade because world leaders are wary of the tone of the event.

Beijing is becoming increasingly assertive in the region and regularly accuses Tokyo of failing to show sufficient contrition for Japan’s 20th-century invasion of China.

Mr Zhang told reporters: “The commemorations do not target any specific country, not today’s Japan nor the Japanese people in general.”

But neither Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nor any official representative of Tokyo will go. Former prime minister Tomiichi Murayama — who issued a landmark apology for the war in 1995 — will be present in a personal capacity.

The only European Union head of state or government named as attending was Czech President Milos Zeman.

France and Italy will send their foreign ministers, officials said, but the governments of the US, Germany and Canada will be represented only by their resident ambassadors.

Ex-British prime minister Tony Blair will attend, but not in an official capacity.