1 Analyzing the signals in the CCP’s post-Beijing parade propaganda
Sept. 4 to Sept. 7
The CCP propaganda apparatus went into full political mobilization mode after Xi Jinping’s military parade in Beijing, using the event to promote the significance of Xi’s speech at the parade, reinforce the CCP’s historical legitimacy in the “Anti-Japanese War,” highlight the Party’s leadership, boost national confidence, and project the image of China as a force for global peace.
The headlines of notable commentary pieces include:
- “Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the War of Resistance | Joining Hands Toward a Bright Future of Lasting Peace and Shared Prosperity for Humanity — President Xi Jinping’s Important Speech at the Reception for the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japan and the World Anti-Fascist War Gathers the Strength of Peace, Stability, and Progress.”
- “Xinhua Commentary | Promoting a Correct View of World War II History, Learning from the Past to Build the Future.”
- “Xinhua Research Institute | Looking Back at History, Defending Justice — The Great Contribution of the Eastern Main Battlefield of the World Anti-Fascist War.”
- “Xinhua Commentator: Constantly Advancing the Cause of Building a Strong Country and National Rejuvenation — On Studying and Implementing General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Series of Important Speeches Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japan and the World Anti-Fascist War (Part One).”
- “Xinhua Commentator: Drawing Powerful Strength to Forge Ahead with Courage from the Great Spirit of the War of Resistance — Studying and Implementing General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Series of Important Speeches Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japan and the World Anti-Fascist War (Part Two).”
- “Xinhua Commentator: Drawing Powerful Strength to Forge Ahead with Courage from the Great Spirit of the War of Resistance — Studying and Implementing General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Series of Important Speeches Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japan and the World Anti-Fascist War (Part Three).”
- “People’s Daily Commentator: Inheriting and Promoting the Great Spirit of the War of Resistance — On Studying and Implementing General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Speech at the Conference Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japan and the World Anti-Fascist War.”
- “People’s Daily Commentator: The Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation is Unstoppable — On Studying and Implementing General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Speech at the Conference Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japan and the World Anti-Fascist War.”
- “People’s Daily Commentator: The Noble Cause of Human Peace and Development Will Surely Triumph — On Studying and Implementing General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Speech at the Conference Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.”
Our take
The CCP uses propaganda — one of its so-called “magic weapons” (法寶) of governance — to maintain stability at home (reinforce communist ideology, politically mobilize cadres and the public, uphold the Party’s “great, glorious, correct” image, etc.) and promote narratives that help to advance its long-term agenda of global domination.
The Party’s recent propaganda efforts centered on Xi Jinping’s speech at the Beijing military parade appear to be an attempt to repurpose manipulated historical narratives of the CCP and China’s role in the Second World War towards mobilizing domestic support for “national rejuvenation” and promoting the regime’s domination agenda through Party doublespeak (“peace,” “multipolarism,” “community with a shared future for mankind,” etc.)
1. The recent wave of Party and state media propaganda pieces about the “War of Resistance Against Japan and the Global Anti-Fascist War” reconstructs the CCP’s longstanding narrative about the conflict to facilitate its present objectives.
i) The recent propaganda pieces are the CCP’s attempt to “correct” historical perspectives,” “uphold justice,” and emphasize China’s role in “saving human civilization.” The pieces noted that China put up the “earliest and longest resistance against fascist aggression,” saying that Chinese forces pinned down the bulk of Imperial Japanese forces in the “main eastern theater,” causing over 70 percent of Japanese casualties, supporting Allied battlefields, and making “immense sacrifices” with 35 million casualties. The propaganda pieces add that China’s contribution “drove global victory” but was not properly regarded by the West.
The CCP’s framing of China mounting the “earliest and longest resistance against fascist aggression” is the continuation of a propaganda framing shift that took place in 2017. Before that, the Party preferred an “eight-year war of resistance” narrative (1937 to 1945) because it allowed them to skip over the period from 1931 to 1937 where the Red Army primarily fought the Kuomintang forces, as well as engaged in banditry and plunder. The “eight-year war of resistance” narrative also allowed the Party to avoid the awkward fact that its rebellion against the Republic of China undermined national unity and granted Imperial Japan an opportunity to exploit China’s internal disarray to seize the three northeastern provinces in the Mukden Incident of 1931.
In late 2016, the PRC education department issued a directive ordering the “eight-year war of resistance” narrative to be changed to a “fourteen-year war of resistance” starting in 2017. Ostensibly, the change was made to “fully reflect Japan’s crimes of aggression and emphasize that the fourteen years of resistance following the Sept. 18 (Mukden) Incident form an integrated whole.” Unstated was the CCP’s need to officially “retcon” its celebration of the 60th anniversary of the “War of Resistance Against Japan and the Global Anti-Fascist War” in 2005, as well as rebut exposés by Chinese historian Xin Haonian and other independent scholars that the CCP — founded as branch of the Comintern under the command of the Soviet Union — had betrayed China by making a largely vacuous show of resisting the Japanese while actually expanding its power.
ii) The recent CCP propaganda on the Second World War downplays the contributions of the Western allies to the Chinese war effort while attributing the outbreak of the conflict to Western imperialism. Concurrently, the propaganda extends the narrative of the Party “leading” the victory against Imperial Japan, spearheading the “independence and liberation of the Chinese nation,” overthrowing imperialist and colonial oppression, establishing a red regime, and advancing the “liberation cause of oppressed nations worldwide.”
The CCP’s repackaging of itself as the leader of China’s victory against Imperial Japan and a key participant in shaping the post-World War II global order is ahistorical. For one, the Kuomintang-led ROC forces did the bulk of the fighting and headed the legitimate government of China. The ROC also accepted Japan’s surrender, co-founded the United Nations, and was the signatory to key international documents like the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation. At the time, the CCP’s armed forces were just units within the ROC’s military structure and did not contribute significantly to any of the major engagements fought against the Japanese. And to this day, the ROC continues to exist in Taiwan, a territory that has never been governed by the CCP.
By rewriting history and taking credit for the ROC’s post-Second World War international contributions, the CCP is likely looking to create legitimacy for its ongoing efforts to seek “reunification” with Taiwan. The CCP also appears to be laying the groundwork to eventually displace the U.S. (which is increasingly questioning the relevance of the post-WWII global structure) as global hegemon by upholding the UN-centered international system that it has significantly infiltrated and manipulated, as well as promoting its conceptions of globalism like the “equal and orderly multipolar world” and “a community with a shared future for mankind.”
iii) The CCP is subtly casting the Trump administration’s “America First” approach as the resurgence of fascism through its show of advocating “peace” and opposing war. In doing so, the Party is hoping to frame U.S. efforts to counter the CCP’s economic and security encroachments on America as the outcome of “anti-human Nazi and racial superiority ideologies” that should be resisted.
2. The CCP’s recent propaganda pieces about commemorating the 80th anniversary of the “War of Resistance Against Japan and the Global Anti-Fascist War” reinforce narratives that seek to bolster the Party’s flagging political legitimacy and rally around Xi Jinping to overcome China’s current troubles. Key among these include the following:
- The story of the “War of Resistance Against Japan and the Global Anti-Fascist War” is the victory of a weak nation against a strong one.
- The propaganda pieces repeatedly emphasize phrases from Xi’s speech at the Beijing military parade like, “Justice will prevail, peace will prevail, and the people will prevail,” and “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is unstoppable.”
In particular, the second narrative is an effort to extend China’s “historical victory” to the present, with the Party cast as the “fundamental foundation and lifeblood” of “national rejuvenation” amid tough times. The propaganda pieces transform the commemoration of China’s victory in the Second World War into a call to action, urging the Chinese people to unite around Party Central (with Comrade Xi at the core) to confront present-day complex challenges, overcome difficulties, and achieve the so-called “two miracles” of rapid economic development and long-term social stability.
3. The scale and form of the CCP’s recent propaganda resemble the theoretical campaigns to build up Xi Jinping prior to the Third Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee and the 20th Party Congress. The Third Plenum issued a historical resolution that effectively elevated Xi’s status in the Party, while the 20th Party Congress promoted the “Two Establishes” as critical to the CCP’s cause.
It is likely that the recent CCP propaganda commemorating the 80th anniversary of the “War of Resistance Against Japan and the Global Anti-Fascist War” is partly intended to pave the way for the crafting of a new theoretical justification (with the subtext that only Xi can lead the “unstoppable rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”) for Xi’s continued leadership come the 21st Party Congress in 2027.
