THE TOOTHLESS DRAGON:

China's parade may have demonstrated military strength, but politically China showed astonishing weakness. The People's Republic, for all of its newfound prestige and power, could not get many of its neighbors and not a single Western head of state to attend. It prompts the question: Does China have any real friends? [...]

The red carpet walk was a small but important moment. Had Barack Obama, David Cameron, or Francois Hollande been there, it would have shown that China was a welcome, respected member of the international community. Instead, China could not cajole a single major Western leader into attending a parade commemorating the end of World War II, which is generally considered by everyone to have been a good thing.

Imagine if China actually tried to get something done in the international arena. Who could it count on, other than countries that shared the same interests?

Certainly, China has friends: Russia, Zimbabwe and Venezuela come to mind. But those countries lie outside the mainstream of the international community, and for good reason. They are totalitarian or semi-totalitarian states with repressive policies. In his speech, Xi Jinping boasted that China was a founding member of the United Nations, but aside from Russia, not a single major representative of the U.N. Security Council attended.

The People's Liberation Army Daily said in a lengthy commentary the success of deepening reform would decide the future of China's ambitions to strengthen its forces.

"The difficulty is unprecedented," the newspaper said.

Old ways of thinking were "ingrained" and "it will be very hard to sweep them away from people's heads", it said.

Reforms will also inevitably impinge upon certain interest groups, it said, without saying who those people might be.

"There will certainly be different understandings of what reform means, and this may even cause a certain degree of risk," the paper said. It did not elaborate.

The military has already been shaken by several high-level corruption scandals, as part of Xi's sweeping campaign against deeply ingrained graft, as he seeks to make the military an effective fighting force.

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