TAIPEI, Taiwan – Taipei resident Mu Chuhua caught a glimpse of China's grand military parade on YouTube on Wednesday. As she watched hypersonic missiles roll past Tiananmen Square in Beijing and troops march in perfect formation, she felt they posed no threat to Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as its own.
Ms. Mu, a 69-year-old retiree, said she viewed the parade as simply a way for Chinese President Xi Jinping to "give thanks to the military."
"I think it's quite normal," she said. "It's very grand."
China's parade, commemorating the end of World War II and its victory over Japan, was closely watched internationally for insights into Beijing's military advancements and its show of solidarity with traditional U.S. rivals like Russia and North Korea.
But for many in Taiwan, the democratic island that China has threatened to annex by force if necessary, the parade registered largely for its entertainment value.
"The public's muted reaction to China’s military muscle-flexing reflects both the limitations of Beijing’s intimidation campaign against Taiwan and a long-standing concern among Taiwanese about their desensitization to the constant military threat from China," said William Yang, a senior East Asia analyst at the International Crisis Group.
“It's basically a double-edged sword,” Yang added. “On one hand, China’s effort to normalize its military activities around Taiwan in recent years has forced Taiwanese to consider these activities part of the ‘new normal’ in their daily lives. However, China’s growing military presence also diminishes the impact of these intimidation tactics on the Taiwanese public.”
The Taiwanese government used the occasion to renew its warnings about Beijing's military intimidation of the island. China sends jets and warships near Taiwan on a near-daily basis and has not renounced the use of force to take the territory it considers a breakaway province.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te remarked on Tuesday, ahead of the island's own Armed Forces Day, that the "security environment" in the Taiwan Strait, the body of water separating China and Taiwan, is "more severe than ever before."
China's military intimidation and alleged cognitive warfare tactics "are not only a threat to Taiwan's democracy and freedom but also a challenge to the entire democratic world," Lai said. On Wednesday, Lai laid a wreath at a shrine honoring fallen soldiers and war heroes.
Taiwan, a former Japanese colony, and China have had separate governments since the Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party, lost a civil war to the Communist Party in 1949 and retreated to the island.
During World War II, the KMT, now Taiwan's main opposition party, led China from its wartime capital of Chongqing. The country was then known as the Republic of China (ROC), which is now Taiwan's official name.
The Chinese Communist Party acknowledges the role of the KMT army in defeating Japan, while also praising the feats of its own guerrilla fighters.
In a statement on Wednesday, the KMT criticized the Chinese Communist Party's "distortion of history," while reasserting its own role in the war.
"80 years ago, the Republic of China (ROC) government and the National Revolutionary Army led the country in the war of resistance against Japan, sacrificing countless lives and shedding blood to defend the country, the people, and achieve final victory," the KMT statement read. "This historical evidence is undeniable and cannot be distorted or misinterpreted!"
While the KMT, Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party, and the Chinese Communist Party argue over their own interpretations of the day, for 17-year-old Justin Hu, a high school student in Taipei, the parade was simply "a beautiful celebration and a beautiful display of military power," he told the AP.
"It’s just a ceremony," he said.
