4 [The Lord] shall judge between the nations
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any more. [Isaiah 2:4, NRSV]
[L-R] Chinese President Xi Jinping speaking at the parade; massive display of hypersonic inter-continental ballistic missiles and super advanced high-tech military machinery; armed men and women soldiers, impressively disciplined, take part in the parade.
1st January, 2026 marks the annual World Day of Peace. Our purpose here is to reflect on Pope Leo XIV’s message of peace and, in the face of the violent world in which we live, link it to the significance of China’s 80th WWII Victory Parade which captured world attention on 3rd September 2025.
1. Message of Peace from Pope Leo XIV
“Peace be with you all” are Pope Leo’s opening words for the theme-choice for his message to the world. Subtitled “Towards an ‘unarmed and disarming’ peace,” the Pope’s message calls for peace not based on fear but on resolving conflict through trust and empathy.
In this theme, we hear the Pontiff expands on the prayer he expressed the night of his election May 8, 2025 when addressing from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica the crowds gathered in St Peter’s Square. Sharing Christ’s greeting of peace with the crowd, he said, “It is the peace of the risen Christ. A peace that is unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering. A peace that comes from God, the God who loves us all, unconditionally.”
Pope Leo invites people of the whole world “to reject the logic of violence and war, and to embrace an authentic peace based on love and justice.” That peace must prevail in two realities:
- unarmed, that is, not based on fear, threats or weapons; and
- disarming, that is, “capable of resolving conflicts, opening hearts and generating mutual trust, empathy and hope.” [1]
2. The Significance of China’s Victory Parade 3 September 2025
Four months earlier, on 3 September 2025, China captured world imagination in showcasing its military power at a massive victory parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two. On full display was China’s rapid transformation and capacity to confront any headstrong belligerent foreign powers planning to degrade her territorial integrity.
The event reawakened consciousness of some seriously noteworthy issues. Three of these issues, among others, explain why.
Firstly, a military package of unmistakable annihilation-capabilities
The message from President Xi is clear: “The rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is unstoppable.” So the parade showcased a military package of unmistakable annihilation-capabilities ignored at the aggressors’ peril. Al Jazeera at once noted China’s first public display of its complete “triad” of nuclear-ready capabilities where nuclear-missiles, of hypersonic and intercontinental specifications, can be launched from land, sea, and air simultaneously. Military experts drew attention to the impressive grit and discipline – factors that are crucial in any war – of China’s massive army. Observers even commented on what was not displayed, so that what the world saw is but a hint of what China has and how it will roll out its full arsenal if necessary.
In all this, China is first and foremost sending a loud and clear message to the American-led allies, with Japan closely on tow, whose records precede a pack of war-mongers bent on “encircling” and “containing” China. Against this circus of hegemonic western alliance that openly threatens China, the world sees a massive nation of proven record of peace – bullied and humiliated for a century – that stands united in displaying its real deterrent force.[2]
A people of continuous ancient culture of 5,000 years, the Chinese have suffered a century of humiliation in the hands of imperialist-fascist aggressors. Their country was repeatedly invaded, cut up at will for victors’ spoils, had acquiesced to land-leases under gun-barrels, suffered a free-flow of opium into their country under the menacing threat of British gunships, paid atrociously extortionate war compensations to barbaric invaders, and watched its supremely beautiful and high-cultured Emperor’s Summer Palace (Yuanming Yuan 圆明园) looted and then maliciously razed to the ground! Barbarians did all that, with the British and the French leading the pack. The Chinese, both homeland and overseas, cannot and will not forget any of these, not least the most vile and racist posters at public places during the time of foreign concessions: “No dogs and Chinese allowed”. The 9/3 Victory Parade is a catalyst to raise the spirit of the Chinese people wherever they may reside across the globe, to never forget, to unite, to walk tall, with a sense of mission – “never again!” If you understand that sentiment, you begin to understand China correctly. If you don’t, you have not begun to understand China and the Chinese at all.
The Chinese, from ancient wisdom, know only too well that “The true art of war is the art of stopping wars” (止戈为武 or 不战而屈人之兵). To make sure that the US-led war mongers would not make the stupid mistake of pushing China into a corner where it has absolutely no choice but to fight, the logical thing to do is for China to build up a military capability that is so overwhelming that this military capability acts as an effective deterrence. History does not lie. The precedents stare us all in the face. The American-led West, despite increasing rude awakenings, including from Africa, of its falling influence in recent years, continues to connive and act with a hegemonic, imperialist and colonialist mentality. There is no let up on words of attrition against China. The situation is quite comical if you seriously think about it – a pack of drooling bullies who are at the same time a pack of shaky and fading economies, trying hard to “contain” the real and singular manufacturing giant of the world. Yet, their propensity for aggression will not wane unless you deter them with a convincing display of fire power – that you can sink them if they try anything stupid. To a violent gang, the only language they understand is violence.[3] Violent bullies understand well the language of violent defeat.
And China, we must know, continues to hold a “no first strike” policy. But now, it also warns that this policy does not mean China will never strike. The rest is up to your military imagination. The U.S. may be boisterous and inhumanly violent, as it has always been (recall the bombing of Japan, Korea, Laos and Cambodia, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and so on), but a quiet and non-violent China is the crouching tiger you disturb at your own peril. That message is unmistakable. China’s foreign relations officers, whom Western media and politicians dub diplomatic-relations hawks, repeatedly announce in unmistakable terms that “we do not create troubles, but that does not mean we are afraid of troubles.” They are forthright in proclaiming the Chinese stand: “China is for peace. You leave us alone, we shall leave you alone. But if you choose to be aggressive towards us, know that we shall meet your aggression with full force and to the very end.”
As Professor Jeffrey Sachs puts it, “Stop provoking China. You can’t win a war over Taiwan with China.” He tells the US-led West to learn from the strategic disaster of provoking Russia over Ukraine.[4] Or, as Ronnie Chan, a Hong Kong based businessman and a China-expert, insists, China does not want to fight, and China will avoid getting into war with the US unless, that is, China is left with no options at all.[5] There is no need to preach peace to China! Be real; go preach elsewhere – and you know where.
Secondly, China’s military power is a force for good in the world
China reiterated that it is a force for good in the world as President Xi once again pledges China’s peaceful development.[6] This is a matter of great significance in the turbulent world in which we live. As its influence grows, China has consistently proven in recent decades that it stands resolutely as a force for good in the world, in contrast to the western hegemonic powers. China’s nuclear calculus is based on the logic of a nuclear deterrence that convinces the adversary of a level of damage, when unleashed, would be beyond acceptable.
Just before the parade, at the 25th Shanghai Co-operation Organisation Summit, where China led in coalescing major non-Western powers, Xi said in his keynote speech that “the world has found itself in a new period of turbulence and transformation,” one that is plagued by “Cold War mentality, hegemonism and protectionism.” With its capability and willingness to safeguard international order and peace, China can continue to exert a considerable positive influence in the future.
Harold E. Raugh, Jr., President of the International Commission of Military History (ICMH), sees China as playing a pivotal role in helping to maintain international stability. He said during the 12th Beijing Xiangshan Forum:
- “China is doing a very good job by maintaining a relatively peaceful Asian area. The parade, bringing to the forefront again the memory of Chinese contributions and sacrifices in WWII, shows that China is prepared if it has to be. But its armed force is serving as a deterrent. And to me, that’s very crucial.”[7]
China in fact made great contributions to the victory in WWII. In its 14-year-long resistance from 1931 to 1945, China was the first country to rise against the Japanese fascist aggression and fought the longest resistance that began in 1931. It tied down and struck over half of Japan’s overseas forces, at the cost of 35 million military and civilian casualties, accounting for around one-third of all WWII casualties worldwide.[8] It bears stressing again that an honest study of history clearly unveils how much China was unfairly treated in the post-war settlement, and how much the American-led victors of the war, for their own interests, rewarded Japan the aggressor. And see how that unfair post-war treatment left behind wounds that fester to this day.
On this score, war historian Raugh remarks that by publishing historical works in English and other European languages, Western powers have sought to dominate the political narrative, effectively monopolizing the history of World War II. In so doing, massive “contributions and sacrifices in WWII” made by China, Russia and others have been grossly undervalued.
As a result, Western historical studies have downplayed China’s contribution to the World Anti-Fascist War, rendering it pretty unknown and unappreciated. America’s role gets overblown and has captured the world imagination. America, the “grand victor”, has dominated the narrative and this narrative-control has netted the most benefits from the war.
A correct understanding of WWII is important for safeguarding a just, fair and peaceful post-war world system. China’s September 3 commemorative military parade seeks to draw attention to not only China’s massive contributions towards the eventual victory, but the contributions of other countries as well, especially Russia whose war-casualties at WWII way exceeds other countries’. Their contributions need to be set straight while the American-led West remains insidiously mute.
China today is also the largest contributor of troops among the UN Security Council permanent members, having deployed over 5,000 peacekeepers and maintaining a standing force of 8,000 personnel ready for UN missions, making it a key player in UN peacekeeping operations.
Concerning disarmament, for the good of its own people as well as the people of the world, China cannot rationally “disarm” unilaterally. Precedents-setting West and Japan do not and will not disarm; their annual defence budgets are on the rise, as the U.S. demands it from its allies. Faced with proven powerful aggressors, the rest of the world cannot act responsibly by disarming themselves.
Instead, President Xi calls on nations to “eliminate the root cause of war and prevent historical tragedies from recurring.” For the sake of the world, while Pope Leo or any pope for that matter, must never cease calling for an “unarmed and disarming peace”, that call must, in the face of uncontroverted history of Western and Japanese violence against the rest of the world, and the continued violent postures of these countries, be diligently preached to them and not to China and the rest of the world. To save the world from man-made famines and dead bodies of wars everywhere (as Israel has been doing to Palestine with American-led complicity), “beating swords into ploughshares” must first be preached to and realized in the American-led west. Stop Western hypocrisy, and you stop most atrocities around the world.
For China’s part, President Xi Jinping of China, addressing 50,000 parade-spectators at Tiananmen Square, said, “Today, mankind is faced with the choice of peace or war, dialogue or confrontation, win-win or zero-sum,” adding that the Chinese people “firmly stand on the right side of history”.
Our third issue will be covered in the next post on 16 January 2026 when we begin a series of three posts on Japan’s must-read historically blinding aggression.
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ENDNOTES:
1. See “And Let There Be Peace,” by the Vatican Publishing House.
2. “China’s armed force serves as a deterrent – YouTube”.
3. You may argue, correctly, that violent hearts can be softened by unconditional love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness, as the Jesuit Gregory Boyle has so movingly demonstrated in “Tattoos of the Heart”. However, Boyle is an outsider, not a victim of violence. You cannot ask the victims to do the same unless you are prepared to see man-made famine and dead bodies everywhere. This latter scenario describes the current Israeli genocide of impunity, thanks to the complicity of America the merciless, politics-as-usual hegemon. The world has seen enough of the hypocrisy and lack of human decency in Western violence. Just look at the UN declaration of genocide against Israel on the one hand, and US unwavering support of Israel on the other.
4. “Jeffrey Sachs Warns: Stop a Catastrophic War with China We Can’t Win – YouTube”
5. “Ronnie Chan 陈启宗 At The ‘The United States, China And Taiwan’ Symposium – YouTube.”
6. Spectators at the victory parade were seated on chairs coloured green, red and gold, which symbolise fertile land, the sacrifices of the people, and peace, respectively, according to China’s state broadcaster, CCTV.
7. “China’s contribution to WWII victory under-valued: war historian” at https://english.news.cn/20250918/a5d90de40c32495c8a1d52e4e992b10d/c.html.
[8] “China holds massive V-Day parade, pledging peaceful development,” at https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202509/03/content_WS68b7d6c9c6d0868f4e8f54d9.html.
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, January 2026. All rights reserved.
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