In a gesture of respect and leadership continuity, Chinese leader Xi Jinping positioned his two predecessors alongside him during his inaugural parade in 2015 to commemorate the anniversary of the end of World War Two.
Xi, who is serving an unprecedented third term as president and has wiped out internal opposition, was accompanied by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Wednesday at the 80th anniversary celebration.
Among the foreign visitors were leaders of the Chinese Communist Party.
The procession came after Xi’s unusual trip to Tibet last month and his high-profile summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) weekend conference in Tianjin.
