U.S. Ambassador David Perdue is expected to shun China’s military parade Wednesday that marks the anniversary of the end of World War II.

Regional U.S. allies also are not sending leaders. Mr. Perdue, a former Republican senator and critic of Beijing, will not participate in what Chinese state media have billed as a major show of new weapons for the People’s Liberation Army.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have been heightened over trade and tariffs, continuing Chinese cyberattacks and Chinese military bullying in the South China Sea.

A State Department spokeswoman declined to comment when asked whether Mr. Perdue would attend the 80th anniversary ceremonies. The State Department did not say whether a lower-level official from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing would attend in his place.

Mr. Perdue said during a Senate nomination hearing in April that “Marxist nationalism is reshaping China and their global ambitions threaten the current world order.”

“Since 2000, China has doubled its nuclear arsenal and grown its military at a pace unseen since WWII,” he said. “They have militarized the South China Sea and violated their agreement in Hong Kong. Their Social Credit Score system and extensive policing capability are designed to enforce domestic state control. Their Belt and Road Initiative and their Made in China 2025 statements demonstrate their global ambitions.”

The Japanese government has urged nations in Asia and Europe not to attend the large-scale ceremony and parade in Tiananmen Square.

China’s People’s Liberation Army is expected to show off an array of high-technology weapons at the parade.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party, which played little role in defeating the Japanese during World War II, calls the conflict from 1939 to 1945 a “people’s” war of resistance against Japanese aggression and a war against fascism. The communists did not take power until after the war.

Nationalists who fled to Taiwan during a civil war with the communists in 1949 had conducted most of China’s fighting during the war.

Tokyo diplomats said the commemorations would fuel China’s anti-Japanese propaganda and that any world leader attending would be supporting Beijing’s messaging.

Ten years ago, China held a similar commemoration for the 70th anniversary, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on allies not to participate. He said people born after the war should not be bound to a perpetual cycle of apology. Abe and other major Western leaders did not attend that parade, but U.S. Ambassador Max Baucus, an Obama appointee, took part.

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hong Lei told reporters last week that 26 world leaders would attend the parade. They include Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who traveled by train to Beijing in a rare visit outside the country.

Prime ministers and presidents from Japan, South Korea, Australia and the Philippines declined to participate. South Korea’s highest-ranking official taking part is National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik.

Most of the leaders attending the parade are either aligned with China or are neutral. They include senior leaders from Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Belarus, Pakistan and several Central Asian states.

The parade follows a summit in Tianjin where Mr. Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made high-profile appearances.

Mr. Modi returned to India rather than take part in the parade. The United States has courted him as a leading figure in opposing mounting Chinese hegemony in Asia.

Asked whether he views the massive military parade and Mr. Putin’s and Mr. Kim’s visits as a challenge, President Trump said he does “not see that at all.” He said he has a good relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“But China needs us much more than we need them,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Mr. Trump recently modified two U.S. policies toward China. Talks are underway for a summit with Mr. Xi before the end of the year.

Mr. Trump’s recent deal to allow Nvidia to sell advanced microchips to China was a course reversal. The chips had been banned over concerns that China’s military would use them to enhance its artificial intelligence capabilities.

The president also agreed to allow 600,000 Chinese students to attend U.S. universities. He said the students were needed to bolster the schools’ finances.

The State Department announced earlier this year that it would revoke some 270,000 visas for Chinese students in the United States over national security concerns. Many of them were members of the Chinese Communist Party.

When asked about the additional Chinese students, Mr. Trump defended his policies. He said tariffs bring in money from China and the United States is “doing well with China.”

“I think what we’re doing is the right thing to do,” he told the Daily Caller. “It’s good to get along with countries, not bad, especially, you know, nuclear-powered countries.”

Mr. Hong, the Chinese official, said World War II and the “Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression is the first national liberation struggle in which the Chinese people secured complete victory since the advent of modern times.”

Former State Department official and historian Miles Yu, however, said China’s propaganda about its role in World War II is a “supreme fiction” based on false narratives and fabricated photos.

“Ostensibly a tribute to wartime heroism, this display is, in truth, a monumental distortion of history, a calculated fiction meant to glorify the party, vilify its contemporary adversaries and mislead its people,” said Mr. Yu, a historian of Chinese military history.

The Nationalist government under Chiang Kai-shek bore the brunt of Japan’s military assault. Nationalist forces, not the Chinese communists, fought nearly all major battles and sustained more than 3.5 million casualties, Mr. Yu said.

“In stark contrast, the CCP, holed up in its Yan’an stronghold, sustained minuscule losses. Only one high-ranking communist officer, Zuo Quan, is confirmed to have died in a skirmish with the Japanese.”

CCP inaction against invading Japanese forces in China was based on the party’s ideological links to the Soviet Union. The connections prevented the communists from fighting Japan based on the 1941 Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact.

The CCP is seeking to weaponize historical memory with its World War II propaganda. Museums in China’s wartime capital, Chongqing, and elsewhere display fabricated photos and false narratives, airbrushing out the true partnership between the U.S. and Chiang’s Nationalists, Mr. Yu said.

American figures such as Gen. Joseph Stilwell and the Flying Tigers also have been co-opted into CCP mythology at the same time the CCP viewed U.S. personnel in China as threats and targeted them for assassination, Mr. Yu said.

Among the few Americans attending the parade is Nell Chennault Calloway, granddaughter of Gen. Claire Lee Chennault, founder of the Flying Tigers, CNN reported.

Mr. Hong was asked about those who say the celebrations are designed to pressure Japan. He said the festivities are about defending historical truth and upholding a correct view of history.

“Within Japan, there have all along been some forces that try to deny and glorify aggression, distort history and even honor the war criminals and justify their crimes,” he said. “In recent years, Japan has also drastically adjusted its security policy, increased its defense budget year by year and continued to ease restrictions on arms exports, seeking a breakthrough in military development.”

Grant Newsham, a retired Marine Corps officer with decades of experience in Indo-Pacific affairs, said the U.S. government is missing an opportunity to engage in counterpropaganda against China’s false World War II narrative.

“Any competent propagandists would take the CCP’s victory parade and jam it down their throats with a mix of fact and ridicule — and not let up,” said Mr. Newsham, author of the 2023 book “When China Attacks.”

“The PRC’s howling would tell you you’re on target and should step up the attack,” he said, using the acronym for People’s Republic of China. “There’s no sign these days of political warfare at Department of State, Department of Defense or anywhere else, unfortunately. Plenty to be seen in Beijing, however.”

Retired Navy Capt. Jim Fanell said China’s use of the terminology “people’s war” is instructive of the fact that the only political party that practices this type of warfare is the CCP.

“So, once again, we see this parade as only about perpetuating a myth that the CCP and PLA defeated the Japanese,” said Capt. Fanell, a former Pacific Fleet intelligence chief. “It is a lie. America defeated Japan, in large part because of our Navy, and then after we won the war, we helped Japan rebuild, we kept a large force structure in Asia to bring peace and stability that has existed for most of the past eight decades.”

He said the CCP and Chinese government are disrupting peace and stability for one reason: China’s pursuit of total control.

“It’s a sick effort that should be mocked and rebuffed,” he said.

• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.