The great historical significance of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression goes beyond the grand decisive battle between justice and evil, light and darkness, progress and reaction in the world war against fascism, Wang Yiwei writes.
In 1939, Chairman Mao Zedong, in the preface to the English translation of On Protracted War, pointed out: “The great Chinese War of Resistance is not only a Chinese affair, but also an Eastern affair, and a world affair. […] Our enemy is a world enemy, and the Chinese War of Resistance is a world war.” In 2015, at the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the victory in World War II, President Xi Jinping further stated: “The Chinese people, with tremendous national sacrifices, supported the Eastern Front of the World Anti-Fascist War, making significant contributions to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War.” These statements reflect the horizontal significance of the Chinese War of Resistance.
On September 18, 1931, following the Mukden incident, Japan launched its 14-year-long war of aggression against China. Thus, China was the first nation to raise the banner of armed resistance against fascist aggression, establishing the anti-fascist “Eastern Main Theatre” centred on the Chinese battlefield. Through tremendous sacrifice and extraordinary perseverance, China made monumental contributions to the victory in World War II.
Unlike World War I, where the major combatants were concentrated in the heartland of Europe, the Axis powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy occupied opposite ends of Eurasia, making a single, simultaneous global outbreak impossible. Instead, they chose to target weaker colonies and semi-colonies – the “middle countries” – adopting a strategy of starting with the weaker nations and advancing step by step. Japan’s Mukden incident and invasion of China’s three north-eastern provinces was followed by Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, the German-Italian intervention in Spain during its civil war in 1936, Hitler’s annexation of Austria and then Czechoslovakia in 1938, and Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. The aggression then spread to Scandinavia and Western Europe (1940), the Soviet Union (June 1941), and finally the United States (December 1941). Through these scattered yet strategically interconnected campaigns across Asia, Europe, and Africa, the fascist powers ignited fires of war around the world.
As the fascist powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy advanced step by step, the major Western powers, possessing formidable strength, repeatedly attempted to appease the fascist aggressors at the expense of the “middle countries.” This appeasement only accelerated the pace and expanded the scope of fascist aggression, fuelling the flames of World War II from Asia to Africa and Europe, ultimately engulfing the entire world.
In 1931–1945, Chinese soldiers and civilians waged nearly 200,000 battles and skirmishes, including over 200 major campaigns. The nation suffered more than 35 million military and civilian casualties while eliminating over 1.5 million Japanese troops – accounting for over half of Japan’s total wartime losses. At the war’s end, 1.28 million Japanese soldiers surrendered in the Chinese theatre, representing more than half of all Japanese surrenders worldwide. China endured greater casualties and losses than any other Allied nation, making immense sacrifices for the global victory against fascism.
President Xi said: “In the magnificent course of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, a great spirit of resistance was forged. It demonstrated to the world the patriotic devotion that every citizen bears responsibility for the fate of the nation, the national integrity of facing death unflinchingly and choosing death over surrender, the heroic mettle of defying brute force and fighting to the end, and the unwavering, indomitable faith in ultimate victory.”
The revolution of 1911 was merely the overthrow of the imperial system and a move toward a republic at the level of a small group of Chinese elites, but the common people remained feudal. China was still disunited, impoverished, and barren. Defeating the Japanese invaders followed by further overcoming the “three mountains,” achieving the trinity of geographical China (country), political China (state), and the nation-state (nation), created modern China. After the victory of the War of Resistance against Japan, China’s modernisation no longer took Japan as its model but instead looked to the Soviet Union. Following the reform and opening-up, it took the United States as its model. By learning from and drawing on the modernisation of these two superpowers, China became a master synthesiser. Therefore, the victory of the War of Resistance was the true starting point of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
The great historical significance of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression goes beyond the grand decisive battle between justice and evil, light and darkness, progress and reaction in the world anti-fascist war. In that brutal war, the Chinese People’s resistance began the earliest and lasted the longest. The Chinese people, through immense national sacrifice, sustained the main Eastern battlefield of the World Anti-Fascist War and made a significant contribution to the victory of the global struggle against fascism.
