China vital to triumph over fascism

War of resistance deserves kudos

Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45) was an important part of the world's fight against fascism and a major theater of the anti-fascist war in the East. In the 14-year-long fight against Japanese aggression, which started with the Sept 18th Incident in 1931, Chinese people, with their tenacious will and huge sacrifices, restricted a huge number of Japanese forces to the eastern battlefield and eventually not only crushed Japan's ambition of occupying the whole of China but also shattered its dream of partitioning the world among the "Axis powers" that also comprised Germany and Italy.

After the July 7 Incident in 1937, Chinese troops and people, under the anti-Japanese national united front advocated by the Communist Party of China and based on cooperation between the CPC and Kuomintang, killed 440,000 invading Japanese forces in a series of battles, opening the first large-scale battlefield for the world's fight against fascism.

By October 1938, the Japanese army's dream of gaining a swift victory over China had started shattering and the China-Japan war entered a stage of stalemate. The war in China had by that time dragged more than 94 percent of Japan's land forces, two-thirds of its air force and 60 percent of its naval force.

The July 7 Incident also shifted the world's attention to the East. Given that China's war against Japanese aggression directly influenced the outcome of the world's fight against fascism, it marked a turning point in the anti-fascist war, transforming it from a regional to a global war and led to the full breakout of World War II.

As part of the world's unprecedented fight against fascism, China's war against Japanese aggression was longer than in other parts of the world, dragged Japanese forces into the quagmire and played a decisive role in bringing Japanese imperialism to its end. In the war with China, 1.5 million Japanese forces were killed, injured or captured - more than 70 percent of the casualties Japan suffered in WWII.

After Japan's defeat, the number of Japanese forces that surrendered to China added up to 1.28 million, exceeding the combined strength of Japanese forces stationed in Southeast Asia and Pacific islands, and accounted for more than half of its forces that surrendered to the Allied forces overseas. From the September 18 Incident to the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, China was the only country fighting fascism in the East. For their huge contribution, Chinese people have won the respect of peace-loving people across the world.

Liu Tinghua is a researcher with the Academy of Military Sciences, PLA