Liu Benson: The Global Significance of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
The Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was a critical component of the World Anti-Fascist War; the Chinese theater served as the primary eastern theater of that global conflict. Through immense national sacrifice, the Chinese people played a vital role in the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and made an indelible historical contribution to the cause of human justice. General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly noted: "From its very beginning, the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression possessed great significance for rescuing human civilization and defending world peace."
The Historical Starting Point and Strategic Pivot of the World Anti-Fascist War
As the global historical perspective [1] has deepened and expanded its influence within the field of Second World War studies, the Chinese theater’s status as the primary eastern theater has increasingly gained broader recognition and emphasis within the international academic community. M.C. Quake (Miao Kexiu), a specialist in Chinese history at the U.S. Naval War College, emphasized in "The Critical Stage of the China Theater: The War of Resistance (1937–1938)" that "China's war of resistance broke out earlier than the war in Europe and continued until Japan’s surrender months after the European conflict ended. The significance of this protracted war between China and Japan cannot be overstated." Andrew Buchanan, a historian at the University of Vermont, explicitly stated in World War II in Global Perspective, 1931–1953: "China conducted a long and resilient war of resistance, with a starting point traceable to 1931, unfolding fully in 1937, and continuing until the victorious conclusion of the Pacific War in 1945. This 14-year resistance fundamentally endowed China with an indisputable core position throughout the Second World War." Examining the process of the Second World War through a global lens makes the unique strategic value and inherent global significance of the Chinese theater increasingly clear and prominent.
In recent years, Western historiography has recognized with growing clarity that the Chinese theater is of fundamental significance in defining the starting point of the World Anti-Fascist War. Using the September 18th Incident [2] of 1931 as the beginning of this global war is becoming an important academic consensus for reconstructing the chronological framework of WWII. Teddy J. Uldricks, an American expert on WWII history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, offered profound insights on this, suggesting in World War II: A Global History that the traditional timeline (usually 1939–1945) "is no longer applicable to a complete understanding of this global conflict," and that "the roots and beginnings of this unprecedented conflict can be traced back at least to the Japanese invasion of Northeast China in 1931." Taking the September 18th Incident as the starting point of the Second World War is not only an act of full respect and affirmation toward the historical fact that the Chinese people were the first to raise the banner against fascist aggression and conduct heroic resistance; it also comprehensively and accurately reflects the global, complex, and long-term nature of the Second World War itself.
The protracted resistance in the Chinese theater became a strategic pivot for the global theater of war. Many Western scholars believe that by its enduring resistance, the Chinese theater firmly pinned down the main forces of the Japanese Army, fundamentally altering the strategic layout and developmental trajectory of the World Anti-Fascist War. Ronald Spector, a renowned military historian at George Washington University, proposed in "The Sino-Japanese War in the Context of World History" that "China’s remaining undefeated in the war against Japan was, in itself, the greatest political and spiritual contribution to the Allies." Rana Mitter, an expert on the history of China's resistance at Oxford University, argued in Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937–1945 that on a military level, the Chinese theater was the "fourth pillar" supporting the Allied strategic framework. The protracted defense and local counter-offensives in China between 1942 and 1944—especially the resistance against the Japanese "Operation Ichigo"—successfully tied down a massive number of Japanese main forces, preventing them from reinforcing the Pacific theater. This provided essential support for Allied actions in Normandy and the Southwest Pacific.
As a resilient strategic pivot, the Chinese theater not only consumed and weakened Japan's war capacity and slowed the pace of Japanese aggression but also, at critical moments, powerfully supported the Allies' global counter-offensive strategy, laying a solid eastern foundation for the ultimate defeat of the Fascist Axis powers.
Promoting the Anti-Fascist Alliance and the Reconstruction of the Post-War Order
As a vital component of the World Anti-Fascist War, the Chinese People's War of Resistance not only defended the right to national survival but also—through its strategic role as one of the "Big Four" Allied powers—reshaped the collaborative model of global anti-fascist forces. The international academic community has gradually recognized that through the global radiation of key battles, strategic leadership in the China-Burma-India theater, the civilized practice of humanitarian aid, and institutional contributions to the post-war order, China injected irreplaceable spiritual cohesion and strategic momentum into the Allied cause, profoundly influencing the course of the war and the reconstruction of the post-war international system.
Key battles in the Chinese theater affected the overall situation of the World Anti-Fascist War. Major military actions in China had impacts far beyond their geographic scope, directly affecting the global state of the war. Recent Western research shows that China's containment of Axis expansion was of critical significance. In Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze, Danish journalist Peter Harmsen argues that the Battle of Shanghai "gave birth to a new form of warfare," acting as a "dress rehearsal for the Second World War" and a "pivotal event in shaping the modern world." Key battles in the Chinese theater fully demonstrated the global significance of China's resistance and the strategic status of the primary eastern theater in the entirety of WWII.
China's deployment of troops to the China-Burma-India theater formed a powerful strategic support for the World Anti-Fascist War, injecting crucial geopolitical strength into the alliance. The Chinese Expeditionary Force’s operations in Yunnan and Burma were a rare example in WWII of transnational coordinated combat led by an Asian nation, the strategic value of which profoundly reshaped the Allies' global layout. Rana Mitter argues that the Chinese Expeditionary Force pinned down elite Japanese troops in Burma, forcing the Japanese Army to abandon plans to reinforce the Pacific. Joseph Stilwell, who served as Chief of Staff of the China Theater, emphasized in his diaries that the opening of the Stilwell Road by the Chinese Expeditionary Force was of great significance for the formation of the counter-offensive in the Asian theater. The China-led operations in the China-Burma-India theater not only secured the transport of aid supplies to China but also shattered the Japanese strategic attempt to sever the Asian anti-fascist front, ensuring the Chinese theater continued to tie down Japanese land forces and creating conditions for the Allied counter-offensive in the Pacific.
China's resistance was of decisive significance for the reconstruction of the post-war world order. Teddy J. Uldricks emphasized in World War II: A Global History that "the importance of the Asian theater in shaping the post-war order was no less than Germany's defeat in Europe." Rana Mitter wrote: "China's participation in that arduous war in the 1930s and 40s was not only for national dignity and survival but also for the victory of all Allied nations." From the later stages of the war, China participated in the founding of the United Nations and the construction of the post-war international order, laying the cornerstone for the formation of a post-war international order centered on the UN.
Providing a Strategic Paradigm for Global National Liberation Movements
The Chinese People's War of Resistance was both a component of the World Anti-Fascist War and a practical exemplar for national liberation movements in colonies and semi-colonies. The international academic community fully affirms the political wisdom and military artistry displayed by the Communist Party of China (CPC) during the resistance. It is believed that the strategic experiences tempered during the war—the theory of people's war, guerrilla warfare, protracted war, the united front, and the establishment of base areas—provided a reproducible paradigm for national liberation struggles worldwide.
The CPC creatively elevated "people's war" from the tactical level to a strategic height, constructing a "trinity" theoretical system of social mobilization, political organization, and military struggle. Ronald Spector argued that the people's war advocated by Mao Zedong "was much more than just launching a few guerrilla battles; it was the organization of the entire society to rise up against the Japanese," and that people's war "was, and remains, China's greatest contribution to the history of warfare." Max Boot, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and military history expert, noted in Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present that "Many of Mao Zedong’s war theories, such as ‘the people are the water and the army is the fish,’ are still widely cited today." [3]
Guerrilla warfare and protracted war have had a far-reaching influence. Mark Alper, an East Asian studies expert at Randolph-Macon College, emphasized the significance of the CPC's guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines in People's War in China, Malaya, and Vietnam, proposing that "after the CPC's victory, revolutionaries across the globe adopted guerrilla strategies and tactics in an attempt to replicate the CPC's success." Groups like the Malayan Communist Party and the Algerian National Liberation Front all drew, to varying degrees, on the CPC’s experience in guerrilla warfare, forming a global practice system of "people's war." Ronald Spector argued that "in world military history, the Sino-Japanese War holds an important position in both the theory and practice of protracted war."
The Anti-Japanese National United Front, advocated and actively promoted by the CPC, was a "magic weapon" for coalescing the strength of the entire nation to resist foreign aggression and provided vital inspiration for the establishment of the global World Anti-Fascist Alliance. As early as the 1960s, Lyman Van Slyke, a CPC history expert at UC Berkeley, systematically analyzed the CPC’s united front strategy in Enemies and Friends: The United Front in Chinese Communist History, revealing its intrinsic consistency with the global Anti-Fascist Alliance. The CPC also called for the establishment of an anti-fascist alliance of all Eastern nationalities, setting an Oriental model for the global alliance.
The political, economic, and social construction practiced by the CPC in the anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines not only effectively supported the long-term resistance but also explored a unique path for social transformation and state-building under wartime conditions, possessing groundbreaking demonstrative significance. Mark Selden of Cornell University proposed in China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited that the "Yan'an Way" [4] represented a new type of revolutionary strategic model, providing a valuable path of experience for national liberation movements in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
History proves that the Chinese People's War of Resistance made a decisive contribution to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was the first complete victory for China against foreign invasion in modern times... This great victory re-established China's status as a major power in the world and won the Chinese people the respect of the peace-loving people of the world." Remembering this history and deepening our understanding of its global significance is not only to console the martyrs but also to draw wisdom and strength, to promote the common values of humanity—peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom—and to join hands in building a community with a shared future for humanity to create a better future for all.
(The author is the head of the National Social Science Fund project "Research on China's War of Resistance and Its Global Significance in Western Discourse" and a professor at the Faculty of Marxism, Shandong Normal University)
Source: Chinese Social Sciences Net - Chinese Social Sciences Today, August 29, 2025 Online Editor: Tongxin