Overseas Chinese to mark war victories in Berlin

BERLIN - Overseas Chinese in Europe will hold a meeting here on Aug 10-12 to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory of Chinese People's War of Resistence Against Japanese Aggression and 70th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War, organizers announced on Tuesday.

Zhang Manxin, chairman of the European branch of China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Unification (CCPPR) who made the announcement, said this year also marks the 70th anniversary of the release of "Potsdam Proclamation" and the 15th anniversary of the founding of his organization in Berlin.

"During the past 15 years, with China's growth and development, China's peace and world peace are getting increasingly inseparable," Zhang said.

He also said that the World War II?which ended in 1945 was a war in which justice triumphed over evil and the progressive over the reactionary.

"Especially the Chinese people endured eight years of arduous struggle and sacrificed tens of millions of their lives, which laid the foundation of world peace," Zhang said.

In oder to commemorate the "Potsdam Proclamation", overseas Chinese in Europe have raised money to build a nearly two-meter-tall bronze bell named "Potsdam Peace Bell", Zhang added.

Han Guangming, minister counsellor of the Chinese embassy in Germany, also noted that marking the war victories is not to indulge in a catharsis of hatred, but to remind the significance of peace and guard against the rise of militarism.