BEIJING ¨C The grand parade in the center of Beijing on Sept. 3 to commemorate the end of World War II in China highlighted two contradictory narratives, both immensely important for understanding the country¡¯s future path.
The first story is about China¡¯s newfound strength. In the past two decades of rapid economic growth, China¡¯s military budget has increased sharply ¡ª last year by more than 12 percent. By publicly displaying its latest military hardware, China¡¯s leadership has made it clear that it will never again allow the country to suffer as it did when Japan invaded in 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Of course, this message may not go down well among China¡¯s neighbors. After all, many of them are already anxious about China¡¯s beefed-up military capacity, which they view from the perspective of its far-reaching territorial and maritime claims in Asia.
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