North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to join China’s Xi Jinping at a grand military parade in Beijing on Wednesday morning, marking a historic display of unity against Western powers.
China will flaunt its military strength with tightly choreographed marches, aerial flyovers, and cutting-edge weaponry in Tiananmen Square, celebrating 80 years since the end of World War II.
The parade recalls China’s bloody fight against imperial Japan in the 1930s and 40s, which merged into the global conflict after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Global attention will focus on the rare appearance of Kim Jong Un — who seldom leaves secretive North Korea — and how he, Putin, and Xi present themselves in this symbolic photo moment, seen as a major diplomatic win for China.
The 70-minute spectacle caps a busy week for Xi, who earlier hosted Eurasian leaders in Tianjin for a summit positioning China at the center of regional affairs.
The 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) promotes a non-Western style of collaboration and aims to counter traditional global alliances.
At the meeting, Xi condemned “bullying tactics” by certain countries, an indirect jab at the United States, while Putin defended Russia’s actions in Ukraine, blaming Western interference for the conflict.
Several summit participants — including Putin, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, and other heads of state — will join Xi in Beijing, though no major Western leaders are expected to attend.
Hardware on show
Security around Beijing has tightened in recent days and weeks, with road closures, military personnel stationed on bridges and street corners, and miles upon miles of white barriers lining the capital’s wide boulevards.
Art installations with flowers, doves, and an emblem showing the Great Wall of China with “1945-2025” have cropped up around the city, and Chinese flags are flying in residential neighbourhoods.
Officials have been tight-lipped over the list of hardware to be displayed at the parade, but military enthusiasts have already spotted significant new systems, including what is rumoured to be a gigantic laser weapon.
Defence experts have been analysing social media photos and footage from recent rehearsals, which have shown anti-ship missiles, cutting-edge underwater drones and anti-missile systems.
The military has said all the equipment presented is domestically produced and “in active duty”.
Kim rolls in
China has touted the parade as a show of unity with other countries, and Kim’s attendance will be the first time he is seen with Xi and Putin at the same event. It is only his second reported trip abroad in six years.
AFP journalists captured the moment his olive-green train approached Beijing Railway Station on Tuesday afternoon, with small North Korean flags flying over one coach.
Photos released by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) showed Kim smoking a cigarette outside a carriage with Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and close aide Jo Yong Won.
Another pictured Kim grinning inside his lavish, wood-lined train carriage in front of a national flag and emblem.
Kim enjoyed a brief bout of high-profile international diplomacy from around 2018, meeting US President Donald Trump and then South Korean President Moon Jae-in multiple times.
But he withdrew from the global scene after the collapse of a summit with Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2019.
Kim stayed in North Korea throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but met Putin in Russia’s far east in 2023.
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