By VERA Files
CHINA has invited President Benigno Aquino III to a celebration commemorating the 70th year since the end of the Second World War, which the Chinese government said will be the grandest anniversary marking Japan’s surrender to Allied Forces in 1945.
Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua confirmed that the invitation for the Sept. 3 event had already been sent, but he has yet to receive a reply.
“We have sent the first invitation, if there is a positive response, the formal invitation will follow. That is the protocol,” Zhao said in an interview at the Department of Foreign Affairs Eid’l Fitr reception last week.
If he accepts, Aquino will sit among world leaders invited to witness a rare military parade at Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing. China is expected to display its latest achievements and advances in strengthening and modernizing its military forces. The People’s Liberation Army would also feature some of its most advanced weapons in the parade.
It will be the first time China holds a parade to observe the anniversary of the victory over Japan in World War II. The last event that a military parade was held was during the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic in 2009.
This would also be the first military parade President Xi Jinping will oversee, highlighting a resurgent China under his leadership.
Zhao said he hopes the Philippines consider the invitation to remember the victory of a shared history.
Beijing released details of the event last week and disclosed that armed forces of “relevant” countries’ had been invited to participate in the parade, without revealing which countries have agreed to send troops.
Chinese officials also kept mum on which world leaders and western allies whose countries fought with China during WWII made it to their guest list.
China’s government and state media confirmed on Thursday troops from Russia and Mongolia will march together with Chinese forces in the parade. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend to reciprocate the gesture of Xi who was present at Moscow’s Victory Day parade in May to mark the 70th anniversary end of the World War II in Europe.
Major General Qu Rui, deputy director of the parade’s organization committee, said units from all branches of China’s military who have begun three months of training outside Beijing and at nearby airports will participate. Brand new made-in-China military equipment will also be publicly displayed for the first time.
Beijing says the parade aims to show its commitment to peace. Qu said he hopes through this year’s military parade, history and the future can be connected, that China and the world can be connected, and that a message of peace and development can be sent.
China has declared Sept. 3 a national holiday. Local governments will likewise stage events commemorating the war’s end as memorial sites will be unveiled. Commemorative bank notes and stamps will be printed to mark this event.
Meanwhile, the Chinese ambassador also confirmed that he had just received the invitation to the Asia Pacific Economic Conference that will be chaired by the Philippines in November. So the decision to attend is not yet made at this stage, Zhao explained.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for International Economic Relations Laura Del Rosario said the preliminary invitations had been sent out more than a week ago. But it was more of just informing the APEC-member economies of the schedule of activities the Philippines, as host, has lined up.
Del Rosario said two more invitations would be transmitted before confirmations from the capitals are to be expected. The agenda or talking points in the summit meetings will precede the formal invitation that will be sent three weeks before the APEC Leaders’ Summit scheduled on Nov. 18 and 19 in Manila. A ministerial meeting precedes that on Nov. 16 and 17.
VERA Files earlier reported the possibility that Xi would boycott the APEC in Manila, which sources said was an offshoot of Aquino’s remarks during his visit to Japan in June, when he compared China’s activities in the South China Sea to Nazi Germany’s expansionism which led to World War II. China viewed the remarks as an insult, the VERA Files source said.
Philippine-China relations have been strained over the South China Sea territorial dispute. Both countries paused trading barbs after a brief meeting between Aquino and Xi last year in the sidelines of the APEC summit in Beijing, where Aquino extended the invitation to Xi for the Manila APEC summit.
But with China’s massive land reclamation in its occupied features in the Spratlys, however, tension between the two countries intensified again in the last few months.
Last July 7, the U.N. Arbitral Court at The Hague, Netherlands started the hearing of the case filed by the Philippines against China. The hearing on the jurisdiction and admissibility of the arbitration case was concluded on July 13 after two rounds of oral arguments. The arbitral tribunal gave the Philippines until July 23 to submit a written reply to further questions posed by the court’s members. –Ellen Tordesillas, VERA Files
