The attendance this week of Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Myanmar’s ruling general, Min Aung Hlaing, and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel at China’s “grand parade” commemorating the end of World War II transformed what ostensibly celebrated the defeat of fascism into something far more revealing about contemporary geopolitics.
These leaders collectively preside over states engaged in active warfare, internal repression or serial human-rights violations, a stark irony given the parade’s stated purpose of commemorating liberation from tyranny.
Consider Chinese President Xi Jinping’s guest of honor, Putin, whose Russian and mercenary forces continue their assault on Ukraine in Europe's largest conflict since the very war this parade commemorates. Or Kim, whose dynastic, dictatorial North Korean regime maintains perhaps the world’s most comprehensive system of political oppression.
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