Xi’s Guest List Is Shorter, More Authoritarian Than a Decade Ago
Xi Jinping, center, with Vladimir Putin, center left, and Kim Jong Un, center right, commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender in Beijing, in this image released by state-owned media.
Photographer: Shen Hong/XinHua News/AP Photo
Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un headlined a thinner roster of nations that turned up for President Xi Jinping’s military parade, in a new snapshot of a bloc coalescing around China.
The lineup of heads of state and government on display Wednesday in Beijing skewed more toward authoritarian than in 2015, when China held its first-ever parade commemorating Japan’s surrender in World War II. A dozen nations, ranging from Iran to Cuba, were newcomers on Xi’s guest list this year.