CMG unveils top 10 Chinese military news stories in 2025

China Media Group (CMG) on Friday announced the top 10 domestic military news stories in 2025, including the "V-Day Parade" and the "Fujian aircraft carrier."

The top 10 domestic military news stories are as follows:

1. China marked the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War with a grand military parade.

On September 3, China held a massive military parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, oversaw the parade and reviewed the troops.

2. China commissioned its first aircraft carrier equipped with electromagnetic catapults.

China commissioned the Fujian, its first aircraft carrier equipped with electromagnetic catapults, at a naval port in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, on November 5. President Xi attended the commissioning and flag-presenting ceremony of the Fujian and also boarded the aircraft carrier to inspect the vessel.

3. China unveiled flag patterns of four PLA branches.

Xi signed an order to unveil the flag patterns of four branches of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), namely the aerospace force, cyberspace force, information support force and joint logistics support force.

The release of the branch flags on July 31 marks the establishment of a military flag system of the people's army in the new era, comprising the PLA flag, the flags of the army, navy, air force and rocket force, as well as the flags of the four branches.

The branch flags were put into official use starting August 1.

4. China revised military rules.

Xi signed orders to publish three regulations on the military's interior order, code of conduct and military formation. The revised rules, which took effect on April 1, are designed to fully transform the country's military into world-class armed forces, focusing on combat readiness and addressing the armed forces' concerns.

Fully applying the strategy of running the armed forces in accordance with law, the revised rules aim to promote a more standardized order in war preparation, training, operations and daily life.

5. PLA launched "Strait Thunder-2025A" exercises in the middle and southern areas of the Taiwan Strait.

The PLA Eastern Theater Command on April 2 conducted military exercises code-named "Strait Thunder-2025A" in the middle and southern areas of the Taiwan Strait.

The exercises focus on subjects of identification and verification, warning and expulsion, and interception and detention to test the troops' capabilities of area regulation and control, joint blockade and control, and precision strikes on key targets, according to Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesperson for the theater command.

6. Chinese aircraft carriers conducted training in the Western Pacific.

Two Chinese aircraft carrier formations, Liaoning and Shandong, conducted training in the Western Pacific and other waters.

The drills of the two aircraft carrier formations aimed to test far seas protection and joint combat capabilities, said Wang Xuemeng, a spokesman for the PLA Navy, on June 10.

This routine training, organized in accordance with the annual schedule, is in line with relevant international laws and practices, and it is not directed at any specific country or target, Wang said.

7. China has warned Japan of "crushing defeat" should it take the risk on the Taiwan question.

A Chinese defense spokesperson on November 14 warned the Japanese side of a "crushing defeat" should it dare to take a risk on the Taiwan question.

Jiang Bin, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks at a press conference in response to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's comments that the Japanese Self-Defense Force could exercise the right of collective self-defense if the Chinese mainland uses military forces against Taiwan region.

"Should the Japanese side fail to draw lessons from history and dare to take a risk, or even use force to interfere in the Taiwan question, it will only suffer a crushing defeat against the steel-willed Chinese People's Liberation Army and pay a heavy price," Jiang said.

8. China released white paper on arms control in new era.

China's State Council Information Office on November 27 released a white paper titled "China's Arms Control, Disarmament, and Nonproliferation in the New Era."

The white paper stated that China plays a constructive role in international arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation, and that it actively offers its initiatives and solutions.

China has been and will always be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order, it said.

9. China unveiled online military information management rule.

China released a set of regulations outlining dos and don'ts for disseminating military-related information on the internet.

The regulations, jointly issued by 10 departments, including the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission, took effect on March 1.

The regulations consist of 30 articles and set guidelines for the dissemination of military-related information on the internet, the establishment of military-themed websites and platforms, and the management of online programs and accounts focused on military content.

10. Remains of the 12th batch of Chinese martyrs in the Korean War returned to their homeland from the ROK.

The remains of 30 Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) soldiers who lost their lives during the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea were returned to China on September 12 from the Republic of Korea (ROK).

A PLA Air Force Y-20 transport aircraft, carrying the remains of the martyrs and 267 items of related artifacts, landed at Taoxian International Airport in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province.

In accordance with international laws and humanitarian principles, China and the ROK have completed such handovers for 12 consecutive years, which involved the remains of 1,011 CPV martyrs in the ROK, along with related artifacts.

CMG unveils top 10 Chinese military news stories in 2025

A program produced by China Global Television Network (CGTN) aired on Saturday presented the unerasable evidence of crimes committed by Yoshijiro Umezu, a top leader in Japan's wartime military during the invasion of China, exposing the history that must never be forgotten.

Umezu was a notorious name deeply involved in Japan's war of aggression against China. As Chief of the Army General Staff, he was closely linked to atrocities like the brutal policy of "Three Alls" - kill all, burn all, and loot all - and the inhuman experiments of Unit 731.

Umezu was dispatched to China in March 1934. His role spanned the entire course of Japan's aggression, from the invasion of northeast China to the collapse of the Pacific War.

In May 1935, Umezu presented then-acting chairman of the Beiping Military Council, He Yingqin, with an outrageous demand to expel Chinese forces from North China. He then redeployed Japanese troops south from northeast China, coercing He into signing the He–Umezu Agreement, effectively opening the door for Japan's full-scale military expansion into North China.

In 1938, Umezu became commander of the Japanese First Army. He enforced the savage "Three Alls" policy, inflicting immense suffering on the Chinese people.

Statistics show that during the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, as many as 7 million civilians in North China were killed under the "Three Alls" policy. Umezu became known among the Chinese as the "Demon of the Three Alls."

One of the most heinous units Japan deployed in China was Unit 731. When it was first established, the unit had no official designation. It was Umezu, then commander of the Kwantung Army, who granted it its code number and helped expand its operations. That's why he is widely regarded as the man behind Unit 731.

At least tens of thousands of Chinese, Soviet and Korean civilians, and Allied prisoners of war were used as live subjects in human experiments, dying in extreme pain and cruelty. This chapter of history remains an indelible scar on the conscience of human civilization.

"The Japanese biological warfare units expanded with the direct involvement of the Japanese government, the military high command, the Kwantung Army, and the medical community. This fully demonstrates that Japan's biological warfare was a premeditated, organized, and state-led crime, carried out from the top down," said Jin Chengmin, director of the Exhibition Hall of Crime Evidence of Japanese Army Unit 731.

As a loyal executor of Japan's expansionist militarist strategy, Umezu did not limit his crimes to China. In 1941, having previously taken part in the Russo-Japanese War, Umezu organized large-scale military exercises targeting the Soviet Union as a hypothetical enemy. He continued to train Kwantung Army forces and sent large numbers of elite troops to the Pacific Theater.

On the morning of September 2, 1945, the ceremony formally marking Japan's unconditional surrender was held on the deck of the USS Missouri.

After the ceremony and the final victory in the world's anti-fascist war, Umezu was put on trial at the Tokyo Tribunal, among the highest-ranking military officers. He was convicted as a Class-A war criminal and sentenced to life imprisonment in November 1948.

Although he escaped execution, justice was not denied forever. On January 8, 1949, Umezu died of rectal cancer in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo without ever admitting guilt.

After his death, Umezu's spirit tablet was enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine, alongside 14 Class-A war criminals. For years, despite strong opposition from Asian countries and criticism from the international community, some Japanese right-wing politicians have repeatedly visited the shrine.

This is far more than a so-called act of mourning. It is a blatant challenge to historical verdicts, a deep insult to the victims of aggression, and a dangerous attempt to rehabilitate militarist crimes.

"History and reality both prove that returning to militarism is a dead end. Completely breaking with militarism and sincerely pursuing peaceful development is a crucial precondition for Japan to gain the trust and understanding of the international community, especially its Asian neighbors, and is also the correct choice in the interests of the Japanese people," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a recent press briefing in Beijing.

CGTN program exposes undeniable history of Yoshijiro Umezu’s war crimes in China