Opinion | China’s Victory Day parade was a message to the Global South
The event signalled the rise of an alternative defence model for emerging nations, albeit with potential limits on genuine capability
The parade’s most consequential audience may not be Washington but middle powers from Jakarta to Johannesburg, governments that are grappling with how to develop military capabilities for an interconnected world while avoiding Cold War entanglements.
Kim’s attendance marks his first multilateral international appearance since the Covid-19 pandemic, a carefully orchestrated return to the world stage. For North Korea, the parade offers legitimacy without denuclearising. Kim’s presence signals to other isolated regimes that China provides diplomatic lifelines outside Western-dominated frameworks. The overall message is unmistakable: alignment with Beijing offers rehabilitation without reform.
This trilateral display, with Xi flanked by Putin and Kim, projects an image that serves multiple purposes. It reassures domestic audiences that China isn’t isolated despite Western pressure, shows Global South nations that alternatives to Western partnerships exist and signals to Washington that its sanctions regime has limits. The optics suggest not an axis of evil but an axis of the excluded – nations rejecting Western terms of engagement.