简体中文
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday urged the Japanese government to admit to and reflect on its history of militarist aggression, as China marked the 69th anniversary of winning the war against Japanese invasion.
Addressing a symposium held for the occasion, Xi said the war brought calamity to the people of China and other Asian countries. The facts cannot be denied.
China is ready to promote the long-term, steady and healthy development of Sino-Japanese relations on the basis of the four political documents, he said, but stressed (Japan's) correct treatment of and deep reflection on past events is the political basis of bilateral ties.
With the utmost resolution and effort, we will join with people all over the world to safeguard the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the world war against fascism, he said.
China will allow neither denial nor distortion of this history, nor any return to militarism, he said.
Xi noted China has never blamed the Japanese people for the war, but China demands the Japanese government and some politicians show a minimum of respect to the people of neighboring countries and acknowledge the millions of victims in the war.
Xi criticized some Japanese political organizations and politicians who challenge the human conscience, still deny the crimes, pay homage to the spirits of war criminals, beautify aggression and colonial rules, while denying facts and international justice.
This has breached Japanese government's promise on history, deviated from the political basis of bilateral ties and seriously harmed the feeling of the Chinese people and those in other Asian countries, he said.
Facts are facts. Truth is truth. Any irresponsible words and actions that distort facts are in vain, he said.
"The black is black, you cannot turn it into white by denying it 10,000 times. The white is white, you can never turn it black by denying it 10,000 times," he said.
Japan must show a sense of responsibility for history, the region's peoples and the future, and help maintain Sino-Japanese friendship as well as the stability and development of Asia, he said.
He urged Japan to be prudent in dealing with historical issues, learn lessons and stick to the road of peaceful development.
The symposium was held on Wednesday afternoon by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the State Council and the Central Military Commission at the Great Hall of the People. Premier Li Keqiang was also present at the symposium, which was presided over by senior leader Liu Yunshan.
At the symposium, Xi also called for the Chinese people to carry on the national spirit of the Anti-Japanese War as the country is expecting many "great battles" in its future development.
"The great national spirit, with patriotism at its core, was a decisive factor for the victory, while the mainstay role of the Communist Party of China (CPC) played during the war was also crucial," Xi said.
The anti-aggression efforts which involved the whole nation are an important "magic tool" for the victory, he added.
"We must get ready for many great battles with new historical characteristics as the country strives to achieve its goals, gradually realize prosperity for all, and realize the Chinese dream of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," Xi said.
The President pointed out that, "in the journey ahead of us, we must unswervingly adhere to the socialist path with Chinese characteristics, put development as CPC's top task in governance, comprehensively deepen reform and stick to the path of peaceful development."
When summarizing the significance of the victory, Xi said it utterly crushed Japanese militarism's scheme of enslaving China, resurrected China's status as a big power in the world, and created bright prospects for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Celebration
Earlier in the day, Xi and other leaders attended a ceremony to mark the victory day at the Museum of the War of the Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. It was China's first such celebration since legislature made Sept. 3 an official observance day.
Among those present were Premier Li Keqiang, as well as leaders Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli.
Officials stood in silent tribute during the ceremony. Presided over by Li Keqiang, they presented flower baskets to martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the war.
A salute of 14 guns was fired, symbolizing China's 14-year struggle against the Japanese invaders, which began on Sept. 18, 1931 when Japanese troops attacked northeast China and lasted until their surrender in 1945.
A total of 3,500 doves were released later to remind people of the estimated 35 million Chinese soldiers and civilians who were killed or wounded by Japanese troops.
Later, officials toured a museum exhibition demonstrating the great contribution Chinese people made to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War.
Before the ceremony, leaders met with veterans, relatives of martyrs and family representatives of foreigners who contributed to the victory.
Sacrifice & contribution
Though the terming of the "War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression" seems to suggest that it concerned only two countries, China's struggle against foreign invasion in the 1930s and 1940s nonetheless is of global relevance.
China was the world's first nation to combat fascist forces and its fight lasted the longest during the World War II, Xi said at the symposium.
China had engaged the bulk of the Japanese ground troops for a long time and had played a decisive role in the ultimate destruction of the Japanese forces, Xi said, adding that China also gave strategic support to the allied countries.
His speech was echoed by Pan Xun, a history professor with the Southwest University.
China began fighting Japanese troops invading northeast China on September 18, 1931. The endeavor was further intensified after Japan's full-scale China invasion began following the 1937 July 7 Incident.
By the end of the World War II, more than 35 million Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded during the Japanese aggression, Pan said.
Yet China never caved, pinning down more than half a million better armed Japanese troops - men and materials that would otherwise have threatened India or even the United States.
"After all, if China had surrendered in 1938, the shape of Asia might have been completely different for years or decades, even today perhaps," Rana Mitter, director of Oxford University's China Center, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
He said Chinese resistance was vital in holding back Japan's militarist ambitions in Asia.
Chinese archives revealed that in the eight years from 1937, allied forces killed and wounded about 1.95 million Japanese soldiers. About 70 percent of these casualties took place in battlefields in China.
But China's war story has seldom been told properly on the global stage and, as Mitter noted, its contribution to the Allies' victory against Japan in WWII were never fully translated into political capital in the region.
Seldom have World War II commemorations across Europe - such as D-Day anniversaries - over the decades made any mention of China's contributions.
Mitter attributed the Western amnesia to the Cold War, but added that the blackout has begun to change in recent years, with a number of scholars doing "really a lot of work" in trying to fit the Chinese story into the global story of WWII.
"Nowadays the situation has changed in very significant ways: historians go back and forth between each other's countries, and that means that now that the Cold War is over, we are able to achieve a much more nuanced and much more objective history of those wartime years," said the scholar.
