A huge military parade rolled through Tiananmen Square today as Beijing commemorated the 70th anniversary of Japan’s second world war defeat, but major Western leaders stayed away from the show of strength.

President Xi Jinping oversaw the spectacle featuring 12,000 Chinese soldiers, 500 pieces of hardware and almost 200 aircraft, which comes as Beijing takes a more assertive diplomatic stance.

Key leaders from Western democracies were absent, such as US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has drawn Beijing's ire for beefing up his country's security policies.