Why China Is So Obsessed With World War II

TaiwanPlus News

China has been going to great lengths to emphasize its role in World War II, gearing up for a massive military parade on Wednesday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the war's end, releasing dramas and documentaries and opening new museum exhibits. Why is China so obsessed with this period in history?

Transcript

00:00Beijing is gearing up for a massive military parade.

00:07It's releasing dramas and documentaries.

00:10It's opening new museum exhibits.

00:12Its television channels will broadcast nearly 100 war-themed movies through the end of the year.

00:17All to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

00:22In the months before the event, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other officials

00:26have increasingly brought up China's fight against Japan during the war,

00:30through state media, at press conferences, and in speeches.

00:34The country is going to great lengths to emphasize this period in history.

00:38But the question is, why?

00:41People like to take World War II history, as they take other history,

00:44and pick out the things that for them work as an argument about the present.

00:49And you find that all over the place, not just China that does it,

00:52but China is very keen, in some ways, to use aspects of that history to push present-day claims.

00:59First, let's talk about China's story.

01:03China emphasizes its role in World War II and argues it was the Chinese Communist Party

01:08that led the fight against Japan during the conflict.

01:11It uses this to legitimize its rule at home, strengthen its image on the global stage,

01:16and bolster its territorial claims to Taiwan.

01:19Now, let's take a look at what actually happened.

01:22The trouble in the Far East continues to engage worldwide attention.

01:25The Japanese army marches on a daybreak.

01:27Conflict broke out in the 1930s, as Chinese forces resisted Japanese invasion.

01:33The war killed millions of Chinese civilians and lasted until 1945, when Japan surrendered.

01:39At the time, China was governed by the Kuomintang, also known in English as the Nationalist Party,

01:44which was already in a civil war with the communists.

01:47The two sides formed a temporary alliance,

01:50but historians say the Nationalists did most of the fighting in major battles,

01:54while the communists played a smaller role.

01:56The U.S. and other outside powers also eventually joined the fight.

02:00Later, the Nationalists fled to Taiwan as they were losing the Chinese Civil War,

02:04and the communists took control of the mainland.

02:06Today, the battle continues.

02:09But now, it's won over memory.

02:12China downplays the roles of other actors in the war,

02:15and exaggerates the Communist Party's contributions,

02:18using its claims to help bolster the party's legitimacy.

02:21So, because the Chinese Communist Party famously is not a party that seeks legitimacy through democratic elections

02:28and the sense of multi-party elections, the historical record is very important in terms of shaping its argument that it has a right to rule.

02:38And the war against Japan, as really the single most significant national crisis in terms of conflict between two different nation states,

02:50provides a very important part of that justification.

02:54It's also using this history to bolster its reputation on the global stage,

03:01by painting itself as a founding force of the post-World War II order,

03:05including the creation of the United Nations in the war's immediate aftermath,

03:09when China got one of the five permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council.

03:13This narrative leaves out one key point.

03:16China's U.N. seat at the time belonged to the Republic of China,

03:19led by the nationalists that later fled to Taiwan,

03:22not the Communist-led People's Republic of China.

03:25The seat was only transferred to the PRC around 25 years later.

03:29Still, China uses this moment to frame itself as a responsible and stable global leader.

03:37And then there's Taiwan, which China claims as its own,

03:41using World War II history to bolster those claims.

03:44This goes back to two statements by the Allied powers towards the end of the war,

04:03the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation,

04:06which indicated that Taiwan should be, quote,

04:08restored to the Republic of China.

04:10Though the documents don't mention the PRC,

04:13the Chinese government uses these statements to argue Taiwan is its territory.

04:17But many other countries instead consider the Treaty of San Francisco,

04:21which formally ended the war with Japan in 1951,

04:24to be more legally important.

04:26It required Japan to, quote,

04:28renounce all right, title, and claim to Taiwan

04:31without specifying who it would be given to.

04:34China does not recognize this treaty.

04:36So, they want to use these historical statements to

04:42to destroy the old peace and peace treaty,

04:46or the Chinese people in Taiwan.

04:50These things, as I speak to China, are very annoying.

04:54So they don't talk about these things.

04:57They're only talking about the early and early stages.

04:59Much of the picture China paints of its role in World War II and its aftermath is heavily disputed.

05:04Taiwan's government has strongly criticized China's story,

05:08accusing it of distorting the facts,

05:10arguing that it was the ROC that won the war, not the PRC.

05:14But China is still marching ahead,

05:16this period of history proving a powerful tool for its ambitions in the present and the future.

05:23Hank Xu and Cadence Quaranta for Taiwan Plus.

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