China plans to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Asia, and its fight against Japan, with a stream of movies, concerts, performances and exhibitions, officials said on Monday, in an effort to strengthen "nationalism and culture."
The centerpiece of the events is a military parade through central Beijing in September, although few top Western officials are likely to attend, for fear of sending the wrong signal in a region fraught with territorial disputes and bitter war memories.
Relations between the two countries have long been affected by what Beijing sees as Tokyo's failure to atone for its occupation of parts of the country before and during the war. China rarely misses a chance to remind the world of its suffering at the hands of Japan.