(Source: China Youth Daily 2025-07-30)

Looking back at the historical node commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War, China’s War of Resistance is not only a milestone in national independence, but also reshaped the direction of the world pattern.

China’s anti-fascist war started the earliest, lasted the longest, fought and destroyed the most Japanese troops, and paid the highest price. In September 1931, Japan invaded Northeast China, and the Chinese people began a partial resistance war, firing the first shot of the world's anti-fascist war. Before the United States declared war on Japan in December 1941, for 10 years, the Chinese people almost single-handedly resisted Japanese fascist aggression, making China the main battlefield in the East in the world's anti-fascist war. During the 14-year War of Resistance, the Chinese battlefield contained and resisted more than two-thirds of the total strength of the Japanese army, and the number of enemies annihilated accounted for 70% of the total casualties of the Japanese army during World War II. In order to resist Japanese aggression, the Chinese nation made heavy sacrifices and paid a huge price.

China’s war of resistance also greatly supported the international battlefield. U.S. President Roosevelt once said: "If there were no China, if China was defeated, think about how many divisions of Japanese soldiers could be mobilized to fight in other areas? They could capture Australia and India right away - they could defeat these places effortlessly. They could always rush to the Middle East. " American military historian Mark Stoller pointed out: "The existence of the Chinese battlefield prevented Japan from realizing its global strategy of joining forces with Germany in the Middle East. This was the key to the anti-fascist alliance's respite at the most critical moment in 1942. "China built a solid "Eastern Defense Line" for the world's anti-fascist war with huge national sacrifices.

The great victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression reestablished China’s status as a great power in the world, promoted the national liberation movement, and prompted the gradual rise of non-Western countries. The international landscape began to transform from “Western-centered” to “global pluralism.” This was one of the most profound international changes in the 20th century.

China actively promotes the reconstruction of the post-war international order. When the United Nations was established in 1945, China was the first country to sign the United Nations Charter. China's becoming a permanent member of the Security Council is not only the international community's recognition of China's contribution to the War of Resistance, but also marks the rise of developing countries on the international stage. China has transformed from a "dominated subject" who was constantly invaded by colonization in modern times to a "rule-maker" of the international order, marking the beginning of non-Western countries entering the core decision-making level of the international system.

China’s victory in the Anti-Japanese War also inspired Vietnam, North Korea, Ghana, Cuba and other countries to launch independence movements one after another. By the end of the 1960s, a total of 104 countries around the world had gained independence from colonial rule, ending the world colonial system that Europe had built since the 15th century at an alarming speed. The number of United Nations member states increased from 51 in 1945 to 127 in 1970, the vast majority of which were newly independent countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This change fundamentally changed the composition of the international community. As historian Stavrianos said: "China's victory in the Anti-Japanese War marked the beginning of non-Western countries getting rid of Western political control, and the 'Western-centered era' of the international structure came to an end."

After World War II, countries around the world established an international system with the United Nations as its core, an international order based on international law, and basic norms of international relations based on the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. For 80 years, the world has maintained overall peace. However, in recent years, unilateralism and protectionism have surged against the current, and certain countries have engaged in economic and w88 bullying, brandishing "tariff sticks" and provoking local wars. As the peace deficit, development deficit, security deficit, and governance deficit continue to increase, China, as a stable, positive, and progressive force in the international community, unswervingly safeguards the core role of the United Nations in international affairs, demonstrates its responsibility as a responsible major country, and contributes Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to global governance.

Faced with the question of "what kind of world should we build and how to build this world?", China has proposed the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind. Through the global security initiative, global development initiative, and global civilization initiative, it advocates interdependence and shared weal and woe among all countries in the world, inherits and carries forward the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, and builds a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation as the core to achieve common security, lasting peace, and prosperity.

In the field of global security, China insists on promoting peace and talks and advocates resolving differences through dialogue and consultation, breaking the historical logic that "a strong country must seek hegemony". China is the largest troop contributor to peacekeeping operations among the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The "security-development" linkage model of peacekeeping and construction in mission areas such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mali has been included in the United Nations' Peacekeeping Operations Reform Agenda. In the Middle East, China promoted the "Beijing Dialogue" to restore diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, demonstrating the diplomatic wisdom of non-military intervention. This security concept with "mutual benefit and win-win" as its core provides a new security paradigm for the international community.

In the field of development cooperation, China has proposed the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” initiative. Over the past 10 years, more than 3,000 cooperation projects have been formed, creating 420,000 jobs for countries jointly building the “Belt and Road” and stimulating economic growth of nearly one trillion US dollars. The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway built with China's aid has reduced Kenya's logistics costs by 30%; the Red Sea New City jointly built by China and Saudi Arabia will become a regional economic hub; Kazakhstan has access to the sea for the first time; Laos has a modern railway for the first time. These practices break the myth of "modernization = Westernization" and prove the possibility of diverse development paths.

China practices true multilateralism with practical actions, constantly provides new opportunities for the world with its new development, promotes the development of the global governance system in a more just and reasonable direction, injects strong stability and positive energy into world peace and development, and demonstrates China's image as a responsible major country as a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, a defender of the international order, and a provider of public goods.

(The author is an associate professor at the w88 casino of Marxism, w88 casino)

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