Jeffrey Kinkley is a history professor at St. John's University.
"The military parade itself of course conveyed an image of China's strength and modernization. President Xi Jinping's announcement he will be cutting the size of Chinese military by 300-thousand troops. This sends a message of peace I believe."
In his speech, Xi Jinping announced a reduction in the size of the Chinese military over the next 2 years.
It is the fourth time for China to announce military cuts since the Reform and Opening Up process first began in the early 1980s.
On Thursday, 50 formations including a total of 12-thousand troops took part in the Victory Day parade.
As many as 500 pieces of armaments and 200 fighter jets were reviewed during the parade.
It was also the first time for China to hold military parade to commemorate the occasion.
History professor Kinkley says the Chinese government is trying to draw more attention through these commemorative activities to its alliances with other anti-Fascist forces during the Second World war.
"In recent international relations, the Chinese government has been stressing the fact that the US and China were allies during World War 2. We were both dedicated to defeating imperial Japan and its terrible policies of those days."
Kinkley says when it comes to China's international image, the majority of members of the international community see China as a rising economic power.
"China's international image remains in the middle that everybody recognizes China is the world's second greatest economy. Therefore we will have ups and downs. I can only speak for Americans - most Americans see China as something like a economic rival but also very much an economic partner."
For CRI, I'm Su Yi in New York.
