https://www.aisixiang.com/data/166927.html

Gao Xiang is the Party Secretary of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). This essay, posted to aisixiang.com/data/166927.html, originally appeared in Diplomacy Quarterly, Issue No. 2, 2025 2025年第2期《外交》季刊

2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. The Chinese People’s War of Resistance and the World Anti-Fascist War were a great decisive contest between justice and evil, light and darkness, progress and reaction. Looking back at that decisive struggle 80 years ago, the Chinese people, with unyielding will and immense national sacrifice, opened up and for a long period sustained the principal Eastern theater of the World Anti-Fascist War, becoming the mainstay in resisting the aggression of Japanese militarism. President Xi Jinping has incisively pointed out: “Confronted by aggressors, the sons and daughters of China were indomitable and fought in blood, utterly defeating Japanese militarist invaders, safeguarding the civilizational achievements of the Chinese nation accumulated over more than 5,000 years of development, defending the cause of human peace, and forging a marvel in the history of war—a monumental feat of the Chinese nation.” China not only made a decisive contribution to the ultimate victory of the war, but also actively participated—during and after the war—in the building of the international order, and has consistently been committed to safeguarding world peace and promoting common development. This magnificent history is not only an epic of the Chinese nation’s tireless struggle for self-strengthening, but also a shared memory of China standing shoulder to shoulder with the peoples of other countries to defend historical justice, uphold world peace, and protect human civilization. We remember this history so we can better stride into the future. China will continue to draw profound wisdom from this great victory in upholding justice and promoting cooperation, and, together with countries around the world, jointly defend the hard-won victory and peace, working hand in hand to create a better tomorrow for humankind.

2025年是中国人民抗日战争暨世界反法西斯战争胜利80周年。中国人民抗日战争和世界反法西斯战争，是正义和邪恶、光明和黑暗、进步和反动的大决战。回望80年前那场大决战，中国人民以其坚韧不屈的意志和巨大的民族牺牲，开辟并长期支撑起了世界反法西斯战争的东方主战场，成为抗击日本军国主义侵略的中流砥柱。中国国家主席习近平深刻指出：“面对侵略者，中华儿女不屈不挠、浴血奋战，彻底打败了日本军国主义侵略者，捍卫了中华民族5000多年发展的文明成果，捍卫了人类和平事业，铸就了战争史上的奇观、中华民族的壮举。”中国不仅为战争的最终胜利作出了决定性贡献，更在战中与战后积极参与国际秩序的构建，并始终致力于维护世界和平与促进共同发展。这段波澜壮阔的历史，不仅是中华民族自强不息的斗争史诗，也是中国与世界各国人民并肩捍卫历史正义、维护世界和平、守护人类文明的共同记忆。铭记这段历史，是为了更好地走向未来。中国将继续从这场伟大的胜利中汲取维护正义与促进合作的深刻智慧，与世界各国一道，共同捍卫来之不易的胜利与和平，携手开创人类社会更加美好的明天。

I. The Chinese battlefield laid the cornerstone for victory in the World Anti-Fascist War 一、中国战场奠定世界反法西斯战争胜利基石

The World Anti-Fascist War was unprecedented in scale in human history, with flames of war sweeping across more than 80 countries and regions in Asia, Europe, Africa, and Oceania. From the outset, the Chinese People’s War of Resistance carried great significance for saving human civilization and safeguarding world peace; it formed an important component of the World Anti-Fascist War and made an indelible contribution to completely smashing the fascist scheme of global domination and securing the final victory of the World Anti-Fascist War.

世界反法西斯战争是人类历史上规模空前的战争，战火席卷亚洲、欧洲、非洲和大洋洲等80多个国家和地区。中国人民抗日战争，从一开始就具有拯救人类文明、保卫世界和平的重大意义，是世界反法西斯战争的重要组成部分，为彻底粉碎法西斯称霸全球的图谋、夺取世界反法西斯战争的最终胜利，作出了不可磨灭的贡献。

China was among the first to expose the aggressive essence of fascism and, through immense national sacrifice, raised the first banner of justice for the World Anti-Fascist War. In 1931, Japanese militarism flagrantly launched the “September 18th Incident” and occupied Northeast China; Chinese troops and civilians rose in resistance, opening the curtain on the World Anti-Fascist War. On the second and third days after the incident broke out, the CPC Manchurian Provincial Committee and the CPC Central Committee issued declarations condemning the Japanese militarists’ seizure of the Northeast and thoroughly exposing the injustice and anti-humanity of fascism. The Communist Party of China actively organized and waged guerrilla warfare against Japan in the Northeast. In April 1932, the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic issued the “Declaration of War Against Japan,” formally declaring war. At a time when the international community generally lacked sufficient understanding of the expansionist, brutal, and barbaric nature of fascism, and when some major powers pursued a policy of appeasement, the Chinese people took the lead in raising the banner of resistance. With unyielding will and determined struggle, they made it clear to the world that in the face of aggression, compromise and concession cannot bring peace; only struggle can defend dignity and justice. To hoist this banner high, the Chinese nation paid an extremely horrific price. During the War of Resistance, Chinese military and civilian casualties exceeded 35 million; at 1937 prices, direct economic losses surpassed 10 billion U.S. dollars and indirect losses reached 50 billion U.S. dollars. In an extremely difficult situation of national weakness and a fragile industrial base, China stood firmly on the side of human progress and the just cause, building with flesh and blood an Eastern Great Wall against fascist aggression. This steadfast will and lofty conviction—fearing no brute force and fighting to the end—infused the global anti-fascist struggle with powerful spiritual strength and moral support, proclaiming to the world that justice will prevail, peace will prevail, and the people will prevail.

中国最早揭示了法西斯主义的侵略本质，以巨大的民族牺牲为世界反法西斯战争树立起第一面正义的旗帜。1931年，日本军国主义悍然发动“九一八”事变，侵占中国东北，中国军民奋起抵抗，揭开了世界反法西斯战争的序幕。事变爆发的第二天和第三天，中共满洲省委和中共中央即先后发表宣言，强烈谴责日本军国主义强占东北，彻底揭露法西斯主义的非正义性与反人类性。中国共产党积极组织开展东北地区抗日游击战争。1932年4月，中华苏维埃共和国临时中央政府发布《对日战争宣言》，正式对日宣战。在当时国际社会对法西斯主义的扩张性、残酷性和野蛮性普遍认识不足，一些大国奉行绥靖政策的大环境下，中国人民率先高举反抗的旗帜，以不屈的意志和坚决的斗争向世界表明，面对侵略，妥协退让无法换来和平，唯有斗争才能捍卫尊严与正义。为擎起这面旗帜，中华民族付出了极其惨烈的代价。抗战期间，中国军民伤亡人数超过3500万，按照1937年的比价，直接经济损失1000多亿美元，间接经济损失5000亿美元。中国在自身国力孱弱、工业基础薄弱的极端困境下，坚决站在人类进步和正义事业一边，以血肉之躯筑起了抵抗法西斯侵略的东方长城。这种不畏强暴、血战到底的坚定意志和崇高信念，为世界范围的反法西斯斗争注入强大精神力量和道义支撑，向全世界昭示正义必胜、和平必胜、人民必胜。

China opened and sustained the principal Eastern theater of the World Anti-Fascist War, becoming the Eastern pillar in the overall strategy of the global anti-fascist alliance. In 1937, Japan engineered the “July 7th Incident” and launched a full-scale war of aggression against China; the Chinese theater thus became the first large-scale anti-fascist battlefield in the world. Throughout eight years of nationwide resistance, the Chinese theater long pinned down and engaged the main forces of the Japanese Army and part of its naval and air forces—at its height, tying down as much as 94 percent of Japan’s total army strength—miring it in the quagmire of war and severely depleting its manpower and strategic resources. This fundamentally determined the course of the Eastern theater and utterly shattered the fascist states’ ambitions of global expansion. The tenacious resistance of China’s military and people, on the one hand, kept the main forces of Japan’s Kwantung Army nailed to the Chinese front, turning its plan to “advance north” and invade the Soviet Union into a pipe dream, helping the USSR avoid the peril of fighting on two fronts and enabling it to concentrate on the Nazi offensive in the west—exerting an incalculably positive impact on the European theater. On the other hand, the Chinese theater greatly slowed Japan’s “southward advance,” preventing it from mobilizing sufficient forces to rapidly push its expansion in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. This won the United States, Britain, and other allies a crucial strategic buffer in the early phase of the Pacific War to organize defenses, adjust deployments, and ultimately mount a strategic counteroffensive. These facts fully demonstrate that the Chinese People’s War of Resistance was by no means an isolated regional war, but an integral part of the World Anti-Fascist War. The heroic fighting of China’s troops and civilians and the strategic pinning effect of the Chinese theater provided an irreplaceable key support for effective strategic coordination among the allied nations, making a tremendous contribution to allied victories in Europe and the Pacific.

中国开辟并支撑了世界反法西斯战争的东方主战场，成为世界反法西斯同盟战略全局中的东方支柱。1937年，日本制造“七七”事变，发动全面侵华战争，中国战场成为世界上第一个大规模反法西斯战场。在长达八年的全民族抗战中，中国战场长期牵制和抗击了日本陆军主力和海空军部分兵力，最高时，拖住日陆军总兵力94%，使其深陷战争泥潭无法自拔，极大消耗了其有生力量和战略资源，从根本上决定了东方战场战局的走向，并彻底粉碎了法西斯国家全球扩张的野心。中国军民的顽强抵抗，一方面将日本关东军主力长期钉牢在中国战场，使日军“北进”侵苏计划化为泡影，帮助苏联避免了东西两线作战的危险，使其能够集中力量应对西线纳粹德国的进攻，对欧洲战局走向产生了不可估量的积极影响；另一方面，中国战场极大地迟滞了日军“南进”的步伐，使其无法调动足够兵力迅速推进其在东南亚和太平洋地区的扩张，这为美、英等盟国在太平洋战争初期组织防御、调整部署并最终实现战略反攻赢得了至关重要的战略缓冲时间。这些事实充分表明，中国人民抗日战争绝非孤立的区域性战争，而是世界反法西斯战争不可分割的重要组成部分，中国军民的英勇战斗和中国战场的战略牵制，为世界反法西斯同盟国的有效战略协作提供了不可替代的关键支撑，为同盟国赢得欧洲和太平洋战场的胜利作出了巨大贡献。

China actively promoted the establishment of a world anti-fascist united front, laying a solid political foundation for rallying global forces of justice. Facing fascism—the common enemy of humankind—China came to a deep understanding through the practice of war that only by building the broadest possible international united front could one gather the overwhelming power needed to defeat evil. Amid the arduous War of Resistance, the Communist Party of China not only strove to forge a domestic anti-Japanese national united front, but, with a broad strategic vision, vigorously advocated for a worldwide anti-fascist united front and ardently voiced support for the just struggles of peoples everywhere. As early as February 1938, at the Yan’an Anti-Aggression Conference, Mao Zedong systematically put forward the ideas of building “China’s united front,” a “world united front,” and a “united front of the Japanese people,” laying a solid intellectual and theoretical foundation for China’s push to establish a world anti-fascist united front. After the outbreak of the Soviet-German war in 1941, the CPC Central Committee swiftly issued the “Decision on the International Anti-Fascist United Front,” explicitly proposing to “unite diplomatically with Britain, the United States, and all others opposed to the rule of German, Italian, and Japanese fascists, and oppose our common enemy,” thus sounding a clear call for an anti-fascist united front. China’s active advocacy and tireless efforts ultimately yielded historic results. In January 1942, 26 countries—including China, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union—jointly signed the “Declaration by United Nations,” marking the formal formation of the world anti-fascist united front. The establishment of this front gathered the anti-fascist struggles of different countries and forces into an unstoppable tide of history, providing strong political safeguards for the thorough defeat of the fascist Axis powers and constituting the fundamental turning point toward final victory in the World Anti-Fascist War.

中国积极推动建立世界反法西斯统一战线，为凝聚全球正义力量奠定了坚实的政治基础。面对法西斯这一人类公敌，中国从战争实践中深刻认识到，只有构建最广泛的国际统一战线，才能凝聚起战胜邪恶的磅礴力量。在艰苦卓绝的抗日战争中，中国共产党不仅致力于推动建立国内抗日民族统一战线，更以宽广的战略视野，大力倡导建立世界范围的反法西斯统一战线，积极声援和支持世界各国人民的正义斗争。早在1938年2月，毛泽东在延安反侵略大会上就系统地提出了建立“中国的统一战线”“世界的统一战线”和“日本人民的统一战线”的思想，这为中国推动建立世界反法西斯统一战线奠定了坚实的思想与理论基础。1941年苏德战争爆发后，中共中央迅速作出《关于反法西斯国际统一战线的决定》，明确提出“在外交上，同英美及其他国家一切反德意日法西斯统治者的人们联合起来，反对共同的敌人”，正式发出建立反法西斯统一战线的先声。中国的积极倡导和不懈努力，最终促成了历史性的成果。1942年1月，中、美、英、苏等26个国家共同签署《联合国家共同宣言》，标志着世界反法西斯统一战线正式形成。这一战线的建立，将各个国家、各种力量的反法西斯斗争汇聚成一股不可阻挡的历史洪流，为彻底打败法西斯轴心国提供了坚强政治保障，是世界反法西斯战争走向最终胜利的根本转折点。