Was this the day a new ‘cold war’ between China and the US began, Frenchman’s book asks
In an excerpt from his book Inside the Mind of Xi Jinping, Francois Bougon, an Asia specialist at French newspaper Le Monde, considers the significance of a 2015 military parade
President Xi Jinping is arguably the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. A new book, Inside the Mind of Xi Jinping by Francois Bougon, an Asia specialist who is an economics correspondent for French newspaper Le Monde, traces the rise of Xi and questions whether China’s president has been readying for a new cold war against America.
In the following excerpt from the book (published by Hurst), Bougon explains that a grand celebration on September 3, 2015, may come to be seen as a public declaration of the beginning of such a conflict:
On September 3, 2015, the Chinese regime celebrated the 70th anniversary of the “Victories in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression”, and the anniversary of the “Global War Against Fascism”. Xi Jinping proclaimed the day a national holiday to commemorate Japan’s defeat in the Second World War.
A military procession paraded through the heart of Beijing on Changan Avenue, which links the eastern and western sides of the city, and proudly crossed Tiananmen Square.
One day, September 3, may also be the date chosen by future historians to mark the start of a new “cold war”, pitting a nascent empire, China, against a declining superpower, the United States. The show of force was undoubtedly aimed at the Americans, and in the front row of official guests sat Vladimir Putin – a close ally whom Xi honoured with his first state visit abroad in 2013.
