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West and Japan snub China parade but Putin, North Korean official coming - IceWizard - 08-25-2015
Tue Aug 25, 2015 | 2:13 AM EDT
By Megha Rajagopalan and Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) -
Major Western leaders will not attend a military parade in China next week to mark the end of World War Two, leaving President Xi Jinping to stand with leaders and officials from Russia, Sudan, Venezuela and North Korea at his highest-profile event of 2015.
More than 10,000 troops - mostly Chinese but
with contingents from Russia, Mongolia and
elsewhere - will march through central Beijing
next Wednesday in a parade that will be the
highlight of events marking 70 years since the
war's end.
European and U.S. officials have repeatedly expressed concern that the show of military power could send the wrong signal in an
already tense region, where China has been
taking a more assertive approach to its
territorial disputes.
The anticipated presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin - now confirmed - also put off many Western leaders, diplomats have told Reuters.
Standing next to Xi and Putin at the parade
along central Beijing's Tiananmen Square will
be leaders from countries that generally have
close political ties with China, including Sudan
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Some useful diplomacy could happen on the
sidelines, as Choe Ryong Hae, secretary of the Central Committee of North Korea's Workers' Party, will also attend. Choe is close to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Tanks rumbled through Beijing and fighter jets
flew overhead during a weekend rehearsal.
"This can only send a worrying message to
China's neighbors," a senior Western diplomat
said on condition of anonymity.
The most senior Western leader in attendance
will be Czech President Milos Zeman, Chinese
Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming told a news
conference carried live on state television.
"It's up to each country to decide who they
wanted to send. In China we say those who
come are all guests. We welcome them all,"
Zhang said when asked whether China
considered it an insult that leaders from the
United States, Britain, and other Western powers would not attend.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will also
not attend, in part because of concerns over
China's military expansion in the region.
Sino-Japan relations have long been affected
by what China sees as Japan's failure to atone
for its occupation of parts of China before and
during the war. Western and Chinese historians estimate millions of Chinese civilians were killed.
France will be represented by Foreign Minister
Laurent Fabius, while Britain will send former
justice minister Kenneth Clarke, Zhang said.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair will
also attend too, along with the U.S., German,
Canadian and European Union ambassadors,
Zhang said.
(Additional reporting by James Pearson in
SEOUL; Editing by Paul Tait)