Chinese military parade shows peaceful security, not threat

If some Westerners still hardly recognize the rise of China, then the most unacceptable issue for them is the development of China's military power.

This attitude can be refl ected from Western coverages of China's National Day parade on October 1.
The parade introduced China's new weapons and equipment, but Western media did not forget to remind the audience that China is a "communist country" that is demonstrating its rapidly growing military power.

The Financial Times reported, "Turn on the television news next Thursday and on display will be the sort of images from China that used to capture the imagination in the days of the Soviet Union."

Discussing Western psychology toward the Chinese military parade, Joshua Dominick, an American who is engaged in international cultural exchange in China, explained that those Americans who experienced the Cold War might feel "panic" and associate the parade with negative impressions generated in that era.

Based on the Cold War mentality, Westerners are enjoying the peace brought by the development of Chinese military power, but are still worrying about Chinese military strength. The problem lies neither in whether China has nuclear bombs, nor in whether China has advanced weapons such as Dongfeng 21 missiles and cruise missiles.

The problem is that they consider China's form of government "aberrant" and do not really recognize China under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

"Red China" was an American bogeyman for many years, and China's lack of multi-party democracy still seems a "different species" to many Westerners.

China certainly would not give up developing its army and equipment, or stop the parade just because of the above-mentioned Western ideas. Even if China stops the military parade, the Western Cold War mentality would hardly vanish.


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