China will welcome any leaders who are “sincere about coming” to its military parade and other events marking the victory in World War II 70 years ago, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on March 8 when asked if Japan was invited.

“We will extend an invitation to the leaders of all relevant countries and international organizations,” Wang said at a news conference on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature.

The top diplomat, and former Chinese ambassador to Japan, sent a strong message to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet to break away from historical revisionism, analysts said.

Abe has drawn criticism at home and abroad for his policy campaigns to scrap Japan’s war-renouncing provision in the pacifist Constitution and for his 2013 visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where 14 Class-A war criminals are honored.

Wang said that 70 years ago Japan lost the war, and now 70 years onward Japan “must not lose its conscience”.

“Ultimately, the choice is Japan’s,” he said.

“Those in power in Japan should first ask themselves what they have done in this regard,” he said. “And, of course, the people of the world will reach their own conclusion.”

That China is preparing the events for the anniversary, said Lyu Yaodong, a senior expert on Japanese diplomatic policies at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, can also be seen as a warning “to right-wingers against trying to defy or whitewash history”.

If Tokyo persists in downplaying and distorting historical facts related to wartime atrocities in official statements, such as a speech Abe will deliver on Aug 15, it will “bring even greater harm to its victimized Asian neighbors”, Lyu said.

Earlier this month, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that China will hold a military parade this year in honor of the 70th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Other events to mark the anniversary include a reception and an gala in Beijing.

Wang Yi said on March 8 that the decision to have the parade “is consistent with the practice of other countries and is perfectly normal and natural”, a statement analysts suggested was made to dismiss allegations that China is targeting Japan by planning the parade.

Yin Zhuo, director of the Expert Consultation Committee of the People’s Liberation Army navy, said the parade will send a message that China is a major victim of the wartime atrocities and “it would never impose such suffering upon others”.

China and Russia, both permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, have planned activities marking the end of the anti-Fascist war, Wang said.

This year also marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the UN.

Wang also dismissed claims that China would challenge and even overturn the current international order.

The foreign minister compared the international order built around the UN to “a big boat” and said China was “involved in designing and building that boat” 70 years ago.

China wants it to “sail steadily and in the right direction”, not overturn it, he said.