On Wednesday, China is holding a military parade in the capital, Beijing, to mark 80 years since the end of the second world war. But it’s not just about the past, the parade says a lot about the forces reshaping the world today, and in the future.
At the parade, Chinese leader Xi Jinping will be flanked by the leaders of some of the world’s most heavily sanctioned nations – Russia, North Korea, Iran and Myanmar – and a host of other leaders of the global south but notably almost no western leaders.
