It was quite the gathering of dictators and despised former leaders. Dan Andrews and Bob Carr rubbed shoulders with Helen Clark and John Key.
Oh, and Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, and Myanmar’s junta leader Min Aung Hlaing were all there, too.
‘shame, shame, eternal shame’
The occasion was Xi’s big flex of military might, as the Chinese Communist Party pretended that it had fought off the Japanese invasion in WWII, instead of what actually happened, which was that the Nationalists tried to fight the Japanese while being continually betrayed by CCP moles so that Mao could rule the ashes once the West had defeated Imperial Japan.
It was such a disgusting display of lying communist propaganda and Axis-of-Evil glad-handing that even the odious Carr belatedly pulled out. Dictator Dan was right in his element, though.
Former Labor premier Daniel Andrews has joined world leaders and dictators on the red carpet ahead of the military parade in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Mr Andrews shook Mr Xi’s hand, then that of Mr Xi’s wife Peng Liyuan, shortly before the commemorations began […]
Australia’s Ambassador to China Scott Dewar will be more than 2000 km away from Xi’s parade in a pointed diplomatic snub by the Albanese government that underscores Canberra’s deep concerns about the increasingly assertive behaviour of the People’s Liberation Army.
But Albanese couldn’t actually bring himself to say a bad word about his best mate shaking hands with a disgusting dictator. He wouldn’t criticise Andrews, either.
Anthony Albanese has declined to say whether he or his office provided any consular assistance to former Victorian Labor premier Dan Andrews for his controversial appearance at China’s Victory Day military parade, where dictators Vladimir Putin of Russian and Kim Jong-un of North Korea also appeared.
The prime minister again declined to criticise Mr Andrews’ decision to attend.
“Will the prime minister echo (Annastacia Palaszczuk’s) condemnation?” Opposition defence spokesman Angus Taylor asked Mr Albanese.
“Did the prime minister or his office provide any personal or consular assistance for the visit?”
Mr Albanese dodged the question.
When even Pluckachook is calling you out, you know you done screwed up.
But Ms Palaszczuk on Wednesday morning said Mr Andrews had gone a “bridge too far” […]
Former Labor MP Michael Danby, the former chair of the parliamentary foreign affairs and defence committee, said the image of the former Victorian premier shaking the hand of Chinese President Xi Jinping at such a time “embarrasses Australia”.
It even embarrasses China.
“If they really wanted to thank Chinese people for what happened during the Second World War, in fighting the Japanese, they would have gone to Taipei.
“It’s a tale of infamy during the second world war, which these two are honouring by standing on a dais with the missiles that are going to be fired at Australia […]
“I quote from Shakespeare: ‘shame, shame, eternal shame’. How can (we) get away from that photograph? Never, you never get away from something like that.”
Besides trying to re-write history, the parade is clearly intended to make the world tremble before China’s military might. But, like the guy who has to make a show of having the biggest car, is Xi really just overcompensating for something?
What’s on display in Tiananmen Square is really a collection of Xi Jinping’s strategic insecurities, an intelligence collection bonanza and the opportunity to shape a military response.
While the Beijing military parade will undoubtedly look impressive, a much harder question to answer is whether the People’s Liberation Army can use its new equipment to best effect, and whether the equipment will operate as suggested.
It’s the old dichotomy between parade-ground soldiers and the real fighters. Ranks of spit’n’polished popinjays executing immaculate drill formations are not always the same as deadly combat soldiers. All the latest shiny gadgets are of no account if they don’t work on the battlefield.
The reality is that the PLA lacks modern combat experience. Defence calls PLA behaviour in the South China Sea “unprofessional”. Crazy brave risk-taking is not a smart strategy for any military outfit.
Publicly available PLA journals lament the lack of initiative displayed by Chinese non-commissioned officers and other ranks.
Because, in the end, communists will behave exactly as communists do.
Chinese ships and submarines still put to sea with a political commissar. At the end of a shift on a Chinese submarine, the crew sits down for an hour’s instruction in Xi thought before they can sleep.
American analysts write about PLA doctrine shaped around “control and command” where the headquarters micromanage deployed units.
That contrasts with Western military forces where command and control doctrines hand significant decision-making power to deployed forces.
It’s said that an army is run by generals and sergeants. Beijing has the generals, but the sergeants are simply not trusted to make on-the-ground tactical and operational decisions. When, as it does, the plan evaporates on first contact with the enemy, victory will almost always go to the side with flexibility and initiative. That side is not the PLA.
The biggest danger for the PLA is overconfidence coming from the Communist Party’s propaganda. More than anything, it is that overconfidence we will see on parade in Beijing today.
But don’t be complacent: a fragile if overconfident PLA is highly dangerous.
Xi wants you to think that his military is unstoppable. The truth is he’s not certain of that, as his regular purges of top generals shows.
This means that, for all his tub-thumping, Xi can be deterred from even his dearly held goal of seizing Taiwan if he thinks the PLA aren’t up to it.
And he’ll only think that so long as his enemies are tooled-up and ready to take them on, rather than being hoodwinked by a swaggering military parade.
No matter how many has-beens and mini-Xi dictators flock to fawn over him.
