Summary More than thirty heads of states and governments are attending the parade.
BEIJING (AFP / Dunya News) - China kicked off a huge military ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Japan s defeat in World War II on Thursday, as major Western leaders stayed away.
President Mamnoon Hussain is representing Pakistan in the event.
Chinese President Xi Jinping oversaw the event, riding in a black car past thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks and missiles ahead of a parade through Tiananmen Square.
Xi Jinping welcomed President Mamnoon Hussain and other World Leaders on their arrival this morning. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Presidents of Russia and South Korea are also participating in the event.
Nearly one thousand foreign troops from seventeen countries are participating in the parade. Among them Pakistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Serbia, Tajikistan, and Russia each have dispatched a seventy five-member formation to march in the parade.
The Pakistan contingent was drawn from the three services and has been imparted special training for the parade.
Addressing the event, President Xi Jinping said China s "total victory" over Japanese invasion "restored China s status as a major country in the world".
"The unyielding Chinese people fought gallantly and finally won total victory against the Japanese militarist aggressors, thus preserving China s 5,000-year-old civilisation and upholding the cause of peace," Xi said.
He described the eight-year conflict as "a decisive battle between justice and evil, between light and darkness".
Xi said that China s military -- the largest in the world -- would be reduced by 300,000 troops and that Beijing will "not seek hegemony" in the world.
Authorities have been making personnel cuts to the 2.3 million strong People s Liberation Army for decades in a bid to make it more efficient.
