Wang Meiping: The Historical Position of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in the Global Anti-Fascist War
World War II was a war of aggression launched by German, Japanese, and Italian fascists to re-divide the world into spheres of influence. Although the various nations of the world that suffered aggression differed in terms of their paths of national development, wartime objectives, and global status, they reached a consensus on the issue of anti-fascism. This ultimately transformed World War II into a World Anti-Fascist War to defend human morality and peace. China’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931–1945) was the longest-lasting national liberation struggle against foreign invasion since the beginning of the modern era; it involved the largest scale and the greatest sacrifices, and it serves as a vital component of the World Anti-Fascist War. However, due to the Cold War power structure, the international community long neglected China’s significant role in the World Anti-Fascist War. In reality, the mode of warfare in WWII was an unprecedented total war. Military superiority alone was insufficient to achieve a complete victory; rather, victory required exhausting the opponent's strategic resources and will to fight, driving them into a desperate state where there was "nothing left to fight with" and "no one willing to fight." Although China’s national strength was weak at the time, as the main eastern theater of the World Anti-Fascist War, it relied on a tenacious spirit of resistance, vast territorial depth, a massive population, and effective organizational and mobilization capabilities. China played an irreplaceable role in exhausting Japan’s national strength, pinning down Japanese military activities, wearing away Japan’s will to wage war, and disrupting Japan's global strategy.
Regional Resistance Opens the Prelude to the World Anti-Fascist War
On September 18, 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army launched a war of aggression against Northeast China [1]. The Chinese people began the arduous fourteen-year journey of the War of Resistance, opening the prelude to the World Anti-Fascist War.
First, the September 18 Incident opened the world’s earliest anti-fascist battlefield. The September 18 Incident was not only a war of aggression launched by the Japanese military against China but also possessed the character of a coup d'état aimed at promoting the domestic fascistization of Japanese politics through outward expansion. Therefore, China’s regional resistance possessed an anti-fascist nature. As Italian, German, and Japanese fascism successively took the stage [2], the world saw only a few countries, such as China, Ethiopia, and Spain, carrying out anti-fascist struggles in isolation and without aid. Since the September 18 Incident predated the 1935 Ethiopian resistance against Italy and the 1936 Spanish Civil War, China became the earliest anti-fascist battlefield.
Second, the regional resistance exhausted the national strength and military power Japan used to launch the war. The Northeast Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies and the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army [3], led by the Communist Party of China (CPC), dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of the Japanese aggressors. According to estimates by Japanese historian Yutaka Yoshida, approximately 17,000 Japanese soldiers died during the period of China’s regional resistance. While the depletion of Japan’s national strength is difficult to calculate accurately, it can be reflected indirectly through war expenditures. According to statistics from the Japanese Ministry of Finance, Japan's total military expenditure between 1931 and 1936 amounted to 5.1 billion yen. This indirectly reflects that the regional resistance consumed Japan’s national strength to a considerable extent.
Third, the regional resistance played a role in pinning down Japan’s strategy for world hegemony. Japan’s instigation of the September 18 Incident included the objectives of creating an "anti-Soviet" strategic pivot from the perspective of a global hegemony strategy and constructing a combat preparation base for a war of hegemony against the United States. China’s regional resistance was not only an act of the Chinese nation defending its home and country but also played an important role in pinning down Japan’s global strategy. A sharp contrast to China’s resistance during this stage was the "appeasement" policy adopted by the Great Powers, such as Britain, the United States, and France, toward the aggressive actions of German, Japanese, and Italian fascism.
Full-Scale Resistance Sounds the Alarm for the World Anti-Fascist War
On July 7, 1937, Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, and China began its Full-Scale War of Resistance [4]. Through a protracted war, China not only greatly exhausted Japan but also sounded the alarm for the full-scale outbreak of the World Anti-Fascist War.
First, before the outbreak of the Pacific War, China's Full-Scale War of Resistance had already greatly exhausted Japan's national strength and military power, weakening the Japanese army's fighting will and the Japanese public's support for the war. According to statistics from the Japanese Management and Coordination Agency, from 1937 to 1941, the total number of Japanese military casualties in China exceeded 510,000. According to the Japanese Ministry of Finance, during the same period, Japan’s military investment in the Chinese theater was 36.2 billion yen, with the highest annual percentage of the national budget reaching 77%. The immense drain the Chinese theater placed on Japan led to hardships for the Japanese people and a shortage of supplies, which seriously affected their support for the war. The enemy-occupied rear area battlefields led by the CPC submerged the Japanese army in the "vast ocean of people's war" [5], leaving them exhausted and causing a serious decline in their fighting will.
Second, China’s tenacious resistance forced Japan’s arrogant intention to reshuffle the global colonial order into the light, prompting Western powers like Britain and the United States to begin considering and adopting countermeasures. Japan openly broke the Washington System established under the leadership of the United States and Britain, blocked China’s coastal and river routes, seized Chinese customs under British leadership, issued declarations on the construction of a so-called "New Order in East Asia," implemented monopolistic policies in occupied areas, blockaded foreign concessions, and even occupied Hainan Island and some islands in the South China Sea, directly threatening the colonial rule of Western powers in Southeast Asia. The Great Powers began to aid China’s resistance, laying the groundwork in advance for the subsequent victory in the Pacific War. After the outbreak of the war in Europe, in order to resolve the deadlock in the Chinese theater, Japan took the opportunity to move south into Southeast Asia, exposing its ambition to reconstruct the global colonial order alongside German and Italian fascism. This move prompted Britain and the United States to recognize the situation; they not only strengthened aid to China but also began to construct a US-UK military cooperation system, laying the foundation for the establishment of the Anti-Fascist Alliance.
Third, the Full-Scale War of Resistance played an important role in pinning down Japan to prevent it from launching an attack on the Soviet Union. "Advancing North" into the Soviet Far East had always been a major goal of the Japanese Army. However, because the main forces of the Japanese Army were deeply mired in the "quagmire" of the war in China—especially after the outbreak of the war in Europe—they were unable to launch an attack on the Soviet Union. This ensured the long-term stability of the Soviet eastern front, allowing the USSR to concentrate on Germany and avoid the predicament of fighting a war on two fronts (East and West).
In short, until the outbreak of the Pacific War, China was the only theater of the World Anti-Fascist War in the East.
The Main Eastern Theater of the World Anti-Fascist War
On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States entered the war. WWII developed into a world-scale, comprehensive anti-fascist war, and China became the main theater in the East.
First, the Soviet Union transferred a large number of troops stationed in the Far East to the West to deal with German fascism. It was only after the United States dropped the atomic bombs that the Soviet Red Army formally participated in the Far East theater, playing an important role in defeating the Japanese Kwantung Army.
Second, China’s resistance caused Japan’s national strength to be nearly exhausted, prompting a rise in anti-war sentiment among the Japanese public. According to the Japanese Ministry of Finance, from 1942 to 1945, Japan's total military expenditure was 177.4 billion yen, with the highest annual percentage of the national budget reaching 85.3%. During this stage, Japan's military investment reached its limit, as did the depletion of its national strength. According to the Japanese Management and Coordination Agency, after the outbreak of the Pacific War, Japanese military casualties reached 1.86 million, with nearly 1.56 million killed and over 300,000 wounded across the Chinese and Pacific theaters. According to the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare, from the launch of the July 7 Incident to the end of WWII, a total of 3.1 million Japanese died, including 2.3 million military personnel and civilian employees of the military, and 800,000 civilians. Subtracting the two sets of statistics for military/employee deaths suggests that the number of Japanese military deaths in the Chinese theater between 1937 and 1941 was approximately 740,000. Japan's total war expenditure for the Chinese and Pacific theaters was approximately 760 billion yen—280 times the Japanese national budget—leading to inflation and leaving Japanese government bonds as worthless paper by the time of defeat. The war consumed massive resources; Japan intensified its "controlled economy" (统制经济), prioritizing metals, fibers, and leather products for military needs, while the civilian population had to use substitutes and struggled to maintain a livelihood. Anti-war sentiment rose, and some even pointed directly to the war responsibility of the Emperor and the military leadership.
Third, the Chinese theater played an important role in strategic pinning and coordination for the nations of the Anti-Fascist Alliance. From the July 7 Incident until the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Chinese theater pinned down over 80% of the total strength of the Japanese Army. Even after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Chinese theater continued to pin down 50% to 60% of the Japanese Army, greatly alleviating pressure on allies such as the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. The Chinese military also engaged in coordinated operations with Allied forces, entering Burma twice to fight, and provided the Allies with operational bases, strategic materials, and wartime intelligence, playing an important role in the Allied victory in the Pacific theater. Furthermore, China made significant contributions to the establishment of the post-war international order.
China’s fourteen-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, with the Chinese theater serving as the main eastern theater of the World Anti-Fascist War, made an indelible contribution to safeguarding human morality and world peace.
(The author is a professor at the School of History, Nankai University) Source: Chinese Social Sciences Net - China Social Sciences Today, July 7, 2025 Web Editor: Tongxin