Recently, China marked the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII and its role in defeating the Japan by holding a gigantic military parade in Beijing which had more than 12,000 troops attended including nearly 1000 oversea troops. According to the state media, the main purpose of this parade was aimed to improve the awareness of the importance of peace all over the world and to ensure people’s confidence in the government.
However, there are inner connotations that beneath the seemingly spectacular celebration of the righteous. According to The Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-reveals-guest-list-for-big-military-parade-1440480312, the official government claims it is a victory parade for the ending of the WWII, nonetheless, troops that represent the major forces in the allies power that had dominant impacts in the victory of the war like the United States were not even in the guest lists. Most troops that attended that day's parade were China’s allies nowadays like Russia, North Korea and Cuba. It turns out that actually is a well-planned show off of China’s military power, to pile pressure on its counter powers and to secure the safeness of China’s sovereign and safety both from the domestic and international level. According to Thomas Hobbes, the sovereign itself has the obligation to protect its citizens and help to defeat the outer power; Hobbes also states that once the convents between you and the states once signed, you would never be able to disobey it. Also, according to the words of Chinese state, the pursuance of the party equals to the pursuance of its people, thus people has to act highly consistent with the party. This point is similar to Hobbes saying:“the sovereign is its people, thus his action is the people’s action.”
Though China was one part of the allies power that helped the ultimately defeated the axis power during the WWII, however, the Communist Party of China was not the dominant power at that time in China, it was the Nationalist government that contributed most in the setting of China battlefield. This point can be traced back to Plato’s Politics. In this book, Thrasymachus stated that the justice is the advantage of the stronger. In this case, it truly is. According to the article, it is apparent that the Communists here are trying to rewrite the history like they always do; the party tries to pocket all the glory and victoriousness of this war by fooling the public that they did all the contributions.
In my opinion, the whole military parade was a show that targeted to the interests of the state and the party. Like Thomas Hobbes stated, live in a state that ruled by one smart brain has its sole advantages. Nonetheless, we need to see that people live in society like this would easily lose their consciousness towards right and contribute to the formation of tyranny, which will make the people the ultimate sufferers.
Do you believe that the Communist Party is falsely taking credit for the World War 2 victory? Or do you believe that China is attempting to celebrate the victory for the people?
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing wrong for Chinese government as whole to celebrate the victory of one of the cruelest war in history and to promote the idea of peace across the whole world, however here the situation is that the major power which contributed most to defeat of the Japanese in the China battlefield was the Nationalist Party power instead of the Communist Party itself, thus the Communist government nowadays should not tell its people that they are the dominant force that made the victory possible. It is a distort of the truth of history, and it then can be related to the point we talked in class that justice sometimes is defined by the winner since Communist Party now is a major power in the world.
DeleteI don't think Hobbs would agree with the actions of China. As you stated, the main role of the sovereign is to protect its people. By China flaunting its Army, it is provoking the United States, who's military strength far excuses that of China. This is not what is best for the people as it is increasing tensions with a nation that has the ability to put the people in harms way. This raises the question of what is actually the best way as the sovereign to protect its citizens?
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