CHINA'S BIG PARADE
- Paul Hansbury
- Sep 9
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 10
Last week saw China's Xi Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Putin, Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian, and North Korea's Kim Jong Un all in one place for the first time ever. The group of states they represent has come to be known in Washington DC, and beyond, by the acronym CRINKs. The reason for their gathering was the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan, with Beijing holding its largest ever military parade, showcasing new armaments from laser weapons to 'robot wolves'.
For President Xi the parade was a bold statement of Chinese power as it strives to assert itself as the leader of an emergent post-American world order. The CRINK leaders were joined by two dozen other world leaders, including the leaders of Belarus, Cuba, Turkmenistan and Zimbabwe. Putin and Kim Jong Un were treated as guests of honour. The Chinese leader has an impressive and subtle grasp of diplomacy and this was on display in the way he allowed Putin and Kim to flank him as equals as he took to the podium. (I wrote something about China's diplomacy in a blog post last year).
Contrast that decorum with US president Donald Trump's initial, paranoid response. He grumbled on Truth Social that the leaders gathered in China were 'conspiring against' the US. He later called it an 'impressive' and 'beautiful' parade but his initial reaction is the more revealing.
The day before the parade, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) held a summit nearby in the city of Tianjin, at which Xi presented China as a beacon for peace and stability.
Xi had invited India's prime minister Narendra Modi to the summit and the pair pledged to be 'partners not rivals'. For some commentators, pictures of Xi 'huddled' with Modi and Putin – who shared a car as they travelled between venues – symbolised how counterproductive Trump's global trade policy is proving, pushing US rivals more tightly together. Given the past efforts of the US to preserve comity with India, the world's largest democracy, it would be a strategic failure if New Delhi deepens its cooperation with the CRINKs. But I will get to that in a moment. The parade in China, more generally, provides a good opportunity to evaluate US foreign policy since Trump returned to office.
So much for the 'reverse Nixon'
