China today displayed its military might by showcasing more than a dozen long-range missiles billed by state media as "aircraft carrier-killers" during an unprecedented massive military parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of its victory against Japan in the World War II.


Ballistic missiles, tanks, amphibious assault vehicles, drones and other military equipment rolled through the sprawling Tiananmen Square here, with President Xi Jinping hailing China's victory against Japan in WWII as a "great triumph" which "crushed Japanese militarists".


Over 80 per cent of the war machines on display was being shown to the public for the first time, state media reported. Troops from 17 countries, including Pakistan and Russia, formed part of 1,000 foreign soldiers who took part in the parade.


Some 200 fighter jets took to the skies and 70,000 doves and balloons were released capping the extravaganza. Flanked by Russian President Vladimir Putin, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and around 30 other world leaders like UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and India's Minister of State for External Affairs General V K Singh, Xi minced no words in targeting Japan for the WWII excess in which he said over 35 million Chinese suffered casualties.


Xi, the country's most powerful leader in decades after the first reformist leader Deng Xiaoping, said China would remain committed to "the path of peaceful development" and unexpectedly announced to cut 300,000 troops from its 2.3-million strong military, but gave no timeframe.


Xi made use of the occasion to rally round national sentiments highlighting the humiliation suffered under Japanese in the eight year war starting from 1937. "In that devastating war, the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression started the earliest and lasted the longest," he said.


The massive victory parade was also a triumph of Xi's leadership as he displayed complete control of the military against which he launched a massive anti-corruption crackdown leading to investigations into 40 top military Generals.


The unprecedented display of military might comes at a time when China is in a standoff with its neighbours over South China Sea and East China Sea. China's claim of sovereignty over almost all of South China Sea is hotly contested by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Picture credit: Reuters.