Chinese President Xi Jinping warned the world was facing a choice between peace or war as he held his country's largest-ever military parade at Tiananmen Square flanked by Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong-un.

The lavish event to mark 80 years since Japan's defeat at the end of the Second World War has been largely shunned by Western leaders, with Putin and Kim — pariahs in the West due to the Ukraine war and Kim's nuclear ambitions — the guests of honour.

Designed to project China's military might and diplomatic clout, it also comes as U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and volatile policymaking strain relations with allies and rivals alike.

"Today, mankind is faced with the choice of peace or war, dialogue or confrontation, win-win or zero-sum," Xi told a crowd of

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