China is trying hard to get world leaders to attend events marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing this year, including a military parade, but some diplomats said President Xi Jinping could be left standing on the stage with few top Western officials.
These Western diplomats said their countries were worried Beijing would use the occasion to blast Japan over its eight-year-long occupation of large parts of China before and during the war.
Other concerns were the fact Chinese troops would probably march in Tiananmen Square, scene of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, and the expected presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Beijing-based diplomats told Reuters.
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