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China’s Victory Day Parade Puts Nuclear Triad and Hypersonics on Display

Analysts cast the spectacle as calculated deterrence that also advertised an alternative order.

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin walks with China's President Xi Jinping and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un before a military parade in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on September 3.
Photo composite illustration of Xi Jinping and military weapons
Members of the Chinese military hold flags during a military parade in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on September 3.

Overview

  • Beijing staged a large-scale Sept. 3 march-past in Tiananmen Square featuring only Chinese units and hosting leaders from roughly 26 countries, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
  • The PLA publicly highlighted a fuller nuclear triad with new intercontinental missiles, the JL-3 submarine-launched system, and an air-launched nuclear-capable ballistic missile, alongside DF-17 hypersonic and DF-26D anti-ship systems.
  • Additional unveilings spanned unmanned combat aircraft and loyal-wingman drones, large undersea vehicles, electronic warfare formations, truck-mounted directed-energy weapons, and the HQ-29 ballistic missile interceptor.
  • Regional and U.S. analysts read the event as a signal aimed at raising the cost of outside intervention and constraining Japan’s stance on Taiwan, with no indications of imminent military action.
  • The optics of Xi flanked by Putin and Kim reinforced messaging about a China-centered multipolar alignment, paired with commentary that China’s vast industrial base underwrites sustained military modernization.