在中国庆祝抗日战争胜利之际，欧盟官员却在否认中国和前苏联在二战中的巨大牺牲和贡献。这是对历史的亵渎。我院云山领军学者李形教授在《新时代中国外交》上发表了文章。
他认为，中国在二战中伤亡超 3500 万，为反法西斯战争作出巨大贡献，但西方历史叙述却长期忽视。中国举行抗战胜利纪念活动，彰显维护和平决心，传达了走和平发展道路、构建人类命运共同体的理念。
China reclaims its lost place in WWII history
Lead: China suffered more than 35 million military and civilian casualties fighting fascism for 14 years, yet Western textbooks barely mention its sacrifice. It's time for China to get the historical recognition it deserves.
China commemorated the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War on Sept. 3, a milestone highlighting the nation's resilience and unity. The military parade showcased China's advanced weapons that reflect the country's progress in national defense and technology. This demonstration affirmed China's commitment to safeguarding its sovereignty while contributing to global peace and stability. The commemoration also served as a powerful reminder of the need to remember the history and the sacrifices made in pursuit of peace and prosperity.
Many Western media outlets and commentators viewed China's V-Day commemoration through an ideological lens, vilifying it as a "rallying point for authoritarian leaders." China, however, rejects such distinctions in its diplomacy. Instead, its foreign policy has long been rooted in the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. In recent years, China has expanded this foundation into the broader vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity. This vision highlights global cooperation, mutual development and shared responsibility, steering away from value-based judgments or ideological confrontation in international relations. In practice, it reflects China's effort to engage all countries on equal footing, framing events like the V-Day commemoration as inclusive rather than exclusive.
China's contributions to both world wars remain largely absent from Western historical narratives. These accounts tend to spotlight the European theaters of war and the pivotal role of Anglo-American forces in World War II, while giving far less attention to the immense sacrifices of Chinese and Soviet forces in securing Allied victory. The historical record shows China's decisive wartime role was overshadowed by Western accounts that emerged during the Cold War, despite China's massive sacrifice.
Such omissions date back even further. Take, for instance, World War I, which marked a crucial turning point in China's modern history. It signaled the end of a period of self-isolation and internal upheaval following the Opium War and the Yihetuan Movement in the 19th century, laying the groundwork for China's gradual "internationalization" in the 20th century. The war also created the conditions that later gave rise to the Chinese communist movement would later emerge. China in the 20th century experienced a profound transformation marked by deeper engagement with the international system, exposure to new ideas, and the influence of global forces and emerging trends, representing a pivotal stage in its gradual emergence as a modern nation-state.
Yet, amid these sweeping transformations, how many are aware that during World War I, China sent more than 100,000 laborers to France and Belgium to serve on the Western Front — of whom 2,000 now rest in French soil? How many know that another 40,000 were spread across France, working in factories, digging trenches, carrying ammunition and toiling in docks and railway yards, alongside a few hundred Chinese students who served as interpreters?
While World War I absorbed the attention of European powers, Japan seized the opportunity to expand its influence in Asia. The conflict enabled Japan to present itself as an equal to the Western hegemons, while its ambition to control all of Asia became increasingly apparent.
Ironically, China was one of the primary victims of World War I despite being on the winning side. China was convinced by the harsh lessons from the Versailles Conference that it could no longer fully trust or rely on Western powers. It had to look for a new course and seek out new partners who shared similar experiences and aspirations.
The 1917 October Revolution and the birth of the Soviet Union inspired China's revolutionary transformations and its efforts to break free from Western colonial influence. As one scholar highlights, the impact of World War I on China's history was "the end of an age and beginning of the new one." It provided both the momentum and the opportunity for the nation to reassess its identity and redefine its place in the international order.
China's role in World War II was more than instrumental to the Allied victory. Beginning with the September 18 Incident in 1931, China's 14-year war of resistance against Japanese aggression engaged enemy forces on a massive scale long before the outbreak of the Pacific War. This sustained struggle tied down the Japanese army on the Chinese mainland, strategically constraining Tokyo's options and diverting its resources from other theaters. For this reason, Chinese scholars rightly argue that defining World War II as starting with Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 neglects over a decade of China's fight against Japanese aggression, which began in 1931 with the invasion of its three northeastern provinces. The historical record must restore proper recognition to China's early and sustained resistance.
From the July 7th Incident in 1937, which signaled the start of China's full-scale war of resistance to the end of the war, the proportion of Japanese troops deployed in China each year ranged from about 35% at its lowest to over 90% at its peak, averaging more than 70% over the eight years. This massive deployment drained Japan's military strength and resources, thereby relieving pressure on both the Soviet Union in the north and Allied forces in the Pacific and Europe. Without China's prolonged resistance, Japan might have redirected substantial divisions to Siberia following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, or to the Pacific islands to stall the American advance. The Chinese front, therefore, played a crucial, though often underappreciated, role in the eventual defeat of fascism and the Allied victory in World War II. As President Xi Jinping emphasized in his Sept. 3 speech: "The Chinese people made a major contribution to the salvation of human civilization and the defense of world peace with immense sacrifice in the resistance war, a significant part of the World Anti-Fascist War."
Yet in the post-Cold War era, Western narratives — often colored by anti-communist triumphalism — have tended to downplay the enormous sacrifices of both China and the Soviet Union in securing Allied victory, instead portraying the United States and Britain as the principal architects of success in World War II. Few in the West are aware of the staggering human cost: over 35 million Chinese soldiers and civilians, and 27 million Soviet lives lost. Western accounts frequently fail to convey the true scale of these losses. Therefore, to fully understand the outcome of World War II, one must acknowledge not only the contributions of the Western powers but also the indispensable roles of China and the Soviet Union in defeating fascism on a global scale.
Amid today's global order transformations — shifts of a magnitude unseen in a century — China's Sept. 3 commemoration sought to convey Xi's message to the world that the Chinese people will stand firmly on the right side of history and on the side of human progress, adhere to the path of peaceful development, and join hands with the rest of the world to build a community with a shared future for humanity.
"The rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is unstoppable," Xi said. "The noble cause of peace and development of humanity will prevail!"
文章来源：《新时代中国外交》
发布日期：2025年9月8日
