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Learn from WWII lessons

WANG JIANLANG

Even after Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on July 7, 1937, the US remained neutral in the Far East, refusing to get involved in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45).

But it realized Japan's ambitions extended beyond colonizing China and China's war of resistance was a fight both for its own survival and world security when Japanese invasions began infringing on the West's interests. As a result, from the early 1940s the US, apart from imposing economic sanctions on Japan, also started providing material and financial support to China, and the Flying Tigers, or the First American Volunteer Group, helped defend China from Japanese air strikes. In return, Chinese people's enduring resistance significantly depleted the Japanese army's strength and somewhat halted it from marching further southward, giving the US the opportunity to complete its strategic deployment in the region.

China and the US became formal anti-fascist allies after the Pacific War broke out in late 1941, fighting the Japanese military in Asia and across the Pacific. Their strategic cooperation and close coordination on the Eastern front, which covered large swathes of China and some Southeast Asian countries, made it impossible for Japan to maintain its military presence in Asia.

Commanded by US General Joseph Stil-well, the Allied forces, including China's expeditionary troops, dealt a blow to the Japanese invaders in northern Myanmar, giving Washington an advantage in the Pacific War. In Southwest China, US soldiers and their Chinese counterparts and civilians fought back on various occasions, such as the epic Hump mission. Some Allied pilots called the eastern end of the Himalayas the Hump, giving an idea of how much risk they had to take to bypass Japanese air blockade and ensure precious supplies reached China.

Following Japan's surrender in 1945, the anti-fascist alliance agreed to establish an international peacekeeping organization, the United Nations.

As two influential global powers today, China and the US still have to fulfill their peacekeeping duties and cooperate to reduce the risks of regional confrontations despite their differences on some issues.

The author is director of the Institute of Modern History, affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.