An iconic annual lantern show kicked off on Friday in Zigong City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, featuring hundreds of illuminated glitter lantern sets to create an immersive nightscape for visitors in the run-up to the upcoming 2026 Chinese New Year holiday, or the Spring Festival.
Covering over 43 hectares, this year's show comprises 11 clusters of large illuminated lantern lights and more than 200 groups of small and medium-sized lantern lights. The event this year will run until the end of the entire Spring Festival holiday season on March 3.
One of the highlights of the show is a cluster of lantern light sets created upon inspiration by over 6,000 children's paintings collected from more than 40 countries worldwide.
The show also features a drone performance on Friday with 2,026 drones in spectacular formations wowing crowds of visitors.
Iconic annual lantern show kicks off in southwest China's Sichuan
Nicaragua's co-foreign minister Valdrack Jaentschke has warned that militarism must never be allowed to rise again, as Japan's recent moves to lift its arms export ban and revise the pacifist Constitution continue to draw international concern.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Trials, where Japan's Class-A war criminals from World War II were brought to justice.
In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Valdrack Jaentschke voiced his concern that today's world order is being undermined by interventionism and other challenges.
"It is necessary for us to remember that after the end of World War II, countries worked hard to build a new international order based on international law. However, regrettably, more than 80 years later, we are seeing that this once explored and attempted order is being challenged by interventionism, a confrontational mindset, and tendencies like 'might makes right.' These are precisely the conditions that gave rise to fascism and militarism in the past, which ultimately led to the tragedy of World War II," he said.
He said the international community has a responsibility to pursue a new international order -- one fundamentally grounded in peace.
"Looking back at the history more than eight decades ago and comparing it with today's reality, it is our responsibility to recognize that the world should, and must, build a new international order that is more just, fairer, rooted in international law, based on a logic of mutual benefit and shared success, and fundamentally grounded in peace," said the minister.
"Today, as we revisit the Tokyo Trials, it is meant to remind the world that such a tragedy must never be repeated -- and that we must do everything in our power to prevent it from happening again. We must stop that dark world -- born from militarism, interventionism, and fascism -- from ever returning," he said.
Nicaraguan FM warns of militarism revival
