{"id":30628,"date":"2025-08-22T09:24:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hotelsalepage.com\/feed\/cision-pr-newswire\/diplomacy-talk-why-does-the-west-overlook-chinas-role-in-wwii\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T09:24:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:24:47","slug":"diplomacy-talk-why-does-the-west-overlook-chinas-role-in-wwii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thaipropertynews.com\/feeds\/?p=30628","title":{"rendered":"Diplomacy Talk | Why does the West overlook China&#8217;s role in WWII?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"legendSpanClass\"><span class=\"xn-location\">BEIJING<\/span><\/span>, <span class=\"legendSpanClass\"><span class=\"xn-chron\">Aug. 22, 2025<\/span><\/span> \/PRNewswire\/ &#8212; A news report by chinadiplomacy.org.cn on <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> role in WWII:<\/p>\n<div class=\"PRN_ImbeddedAssetReference\" align=\"center\">\n<p title=\"Diplomacy Talk | Why does the West overlook China's role in WWII?\">&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp;<br \/><span>Diplomacy Talk | Why does the West overlook China&#8217;s role in WWII?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Why does the world remember Dunkirk but overlook <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> 14-year struggle against <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span>? In this episode of &#8220;Diplomacy Talk,&#8221; Professor <span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>, a World War II scholar at <span class=\"xn-location\">Wuhan<\/span> University, shares his insights on <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> wartime experience. He explains how <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span>, enduring staggering losses, stalled <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan&#8217;s<\/span> advance and helped shape the outcome of the war. Yet this chapter of history remains forgotten in much of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Hu discusses the reasons behind <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> long-standing marginalization in mainstream historical accounts and examines the growing international trend to reassess and recognize <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> critical contributions to Allied victory.<\/p>\n<p>Following is the transcript of the interview.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: How would you characterize the unique nature of <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> wartime experience if you compare it with the front-line battles seen in the European and Pacific theaters?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>:<\/b> First, the European theater saw massive corps-level engagements, often involving hundreds of thousands of or even over a million troops. This had much to do with the continent&#8217;s geography: the broad plains in <span class=\"xn-location\">Europe<\/span> made it possible to have enormous and mechanized formations and large-scale armored warfare.<\/p>\n<p>However, <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> terrains made such warfare impossible. <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> is a mountainous country \u2014 only the North China Plain offers a larger open ground. The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, with complex networks of waterways and lakes, posed insurmountable challenges for deployment of mechanized forces at scale.<\/p>\n<p>Second, by WWII, <span class=\"xn-location\">Europe<\/span> had undergone centuries of industrialization, which enabled its armies to have advanced weaponry and armored divisions. <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> simply did not have these capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Since <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> was outmatched by <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> in weaponry, it relied on human resilience and sacrifice. This made it necessary to have a protracted war of attrition, or a people&#8217;s war \u2014 strategies that drained Japanese militarists&#8217; strength, contained their advances and prevented their further expansion. <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> wartime experience was defined by the people&#8217;s war, an invention by the Chinese people. It was mainly a guerrilla warfare \u2014\u00a0an approach shaped by the country&#8217;s unique circumstances.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: The roles of nations like <span class=\"xn-location\">the United States<\/span> and <span class=\"xn-location\">Britain<\/span> in WWII have become widely known through classic films such as &#8220;Dunkirk,&#8221; &#8220;<span class=\"xn-location\">Pearl Harbor<\/span>&#8221; and &#8220;Midway.&#8221; Yet, the international community still lacks an objective and due knowledge of <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> contributions in WWII. To some extent, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> has become the &#8220;forgotten ally.&#8221; Why do you think this is the case? Is it because <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> has not produced blockbusters on this topic?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>:<\/b> Several factors have contributed to this. First, the WWII research worldwide reached its peak from the 1950s through the 1970s, but during this period, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> focused on consolidating its new government. As a result, Chinese academic research in this regard lagged 20 to 30 years behind the West. By the time <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> began producing significant scholarly work on its role in WWII in the 1980s and afterward promoted its findings internationally, the dominant narratives about the war had already been firmly established.<\/p>\n<p>Second, there is the lingering influence of &#8220;Eurocentrism&#8221; and &#8220;Western centrism.&#8221; Even today, many in the West hold onto these biases, approaching WWII history with a certain degree of arrogance and a Eurocentric perspective.<\/p>\n<p>Third, the Cold War has entrenched biases against <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> for several generations. Westerners have systematically downplayed <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> wartime contributions, and their textbooks and seminal works remain heavily centered on their respective nations, relegating <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> efforts to mere footnotes. In their narratives, <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> wartime role has always been portrayed as peripheral, never central to the victory of WWII.<\/p>\n<p>Only in recent years have a growing number of foreign scholars emerged from the shadow of the Cold War, re-examining WWII and <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> role in it with fresh objectivity. For example, <span class=\"xn-org\">Oxford University<\/span> professor <span class=\"xn-person\">Rana Mitter&#8217;s<\/span> book &#8220;Forgotten Ally: <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> World War II, 1937-1945&#8243; aims to recognize <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> important role and contribution in WWII. There are increasingly more Western scholars like Professor Mitter these days.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> announced its unconditional surrender just days after <span class=\"xn-location\">the United States<\/span> dropped two atomic bombs on its cities. As a result, some argue that without these U.S. bombs, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> could not have defeated <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> on its own. How do you assess this argument?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>: <\/b>To properly evaluate this, we must have the perspective of the entire 14-year war that went from <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan&#8217;s<\/span> initial aggression to its eventual surrender. Throughout this prolonged war, it was the Chinese theater that truly crippled and pinned down the bulk of <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan&#8217;s<\/span> military forces. In this context, we can see that the atomic bombs dropped by <span class=\"xn-location\">the United States<\/span> and the <span class=\"xn-location\">Soviet Union&#8217;s<\/span> offensive against the Japanese in <span class=\"xn-location\">Northeast China<\/span> served primarily to hasten <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan&#8217;s<\/span> surrender, rather than determine the war&#8217;s ultimate outcome.<\/p>\n<p>Undoubtedly, the Pacific theater saw extraordinary American military achievements, with U.S. forces advancing all the way to <span class=\"xn-location\">Okinawa<\/span>, right to <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan&#8217;s<\/span> doorstep. Yet when assessing the war as a whole, we must see that it was <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> that bore the heaviest sacrifices and consistently engaged the bulk of the Japanese army. This was fundamentally the root cause of <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan&#8217;s<\/span> ultimate defeat.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: How did the Chinese theater provide strategic support and coordination for other allies during the war?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>:<\/b> The allies adopted a &#8220;Europe First&#8221; strategy, focusing their efforts on defeating Nazi <span class=\"xn-location\">Germany<\/span> before turning to other fronts. After all, Nazi <span class=\"xn-location\">Germany<\/span> was the strongest fascist power.<\/p>\n<p>Under this &#8220;Europe First&#8221; strategy, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> made tremendous sacrifices. It must stand unbroken in its resistance war against Japanese aggression, because if the Chinese front had collapsed or if <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> had surrendered, the Allied operations in the European theater would not have proceeded smoothly.<\/p>\n<p>First, the <span class=\"xn-location\">Soviet Union<\/span> would have faced the danger of a two-front war, with <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> attacking from the east and <span class=\"xn-location\">Germany<\/span> from the west, squeezing it from both sides. Second, if <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> had been defeated, <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> might have advanced through the Pacific theater to <span class=\"xn-location\">Australia<\/span>, pushed into <span class=\"xn-location\">India<\/span> and the Indian Ocean, or even linked up with <span class=\"xn-location\">Germany<\/span> in the <span class=\"xn-location\">Middle East<\/span>. By bogging down <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> in the country, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> played a decisive role in stopping it from attacking the <span class=\"xn-location\">Soviet Union<\/span> and preventing its further expansion into <span class=\"xn-location\">Australia<\/span>, the Indian Ocean and <span class=\"xn-location\">India<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> was the key anchor of the &#8220;Europe First&#8221; strategy. Without <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> efforts to tie down and weaken the bulk of the Japanese army, the Allied forces would have faced far greater challenges in their war efforts.<\/p>\n<p>This was why former U.S. President <span class=\"xn-person\">Franklin D. Roosevelt<\/span>, former British Prime Minister <span class=\"xn-person\">Winston Churchill<\/span> and former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin all spoke highly of <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> resistance war against Japanese aggression and recognized its crucial contribution.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: What role do you think <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> played in the global anti-fascist war? How would you assess the scale of <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> contribution?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>:<\/b> Among all the major battlefronts of WWII, the one in <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> started the earliest and endured the longest. As a weaker nation, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> faced the greatest hardships, yet persevered through 14 years of war.<\/p>\n<p>By comparison, the Western allies&#8217; war experience lasted only four to five years, beginning with <span class=\"xn-location\">Germany&#8217;s<\/span> invasion of <span class=\"xn-location\">Poland<\/span> in 1939. That was much shorter than <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span>. In the first eight grueling years of the war, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> fought alone until <span class=\"xn-location\">Britain<\/span> and <span class=\"xn-location\">France<\/span> entered the war in 1939, ending <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> complete isolation. Yet it was not until 1941, when <span class=\"xn-location\">Germany<\/span> attacked the <span class=\"xn-location\">Soviet Union<\/span> and then <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> launched the Pacific War, that <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> truly emerged from strategic isolation.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> essentially relied on its own strength to sustain this prolonged war. Its contribution cannot be measured solely by the number of enemy forces eliminated or the scale of individual battles. Such quantification would be fundamentally unreasonable. Yet <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> resistance alone set <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> on the path to defeat.<\/p>\n<p>The international community has yet to properly acknowledge <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> pivotal role in WWII with fairness because it fought for the entire world rather than just for itself.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: What aspects of <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> wartime role do you feel are ignored or underestimated?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>:<\/b> Given the large-scale battles fought in the Western theaters, Western historians often dismiss <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> campaigns as &#8220;minor engagements&#8221; and do not consider them particularly significant. However, it was precisely these so-called small-scale operations \u2014 especially guerrilla warfare \u2014\u00a0that continuously depleted the vitality of <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> and forced it to repeatedly divert more troops to <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>When the Pacific War broke out, the bulk of the Japanese army was still fighting in <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span>. At that time, <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> had more than 30 divisions deployed in <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span>, while only 10 divisions were assigned to the entire Pacific theater. These 10 divisions managed to sweep through <span class=\"xn-location\">Southeast Asia<\/span> and defeat American, British and Dutch forces, but <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan&#8217;s<\/span> 30-plus divisions in <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> ultimately failed to conquer the country. This stark contrast clearly demonstrates the immense significance of <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> resistance, which deserves objective historical analysis.<\/p>\n<p>The extraordinary duration of <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> resistance was closely tied to its unique strategic advantages and the new tactics of the warfare. Mao Zedong&#8217;s work &#8220;On Protracted War&#8221; provided the theoretical foundation for <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> approach. <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> adopted a distinct doctrine: protracted people&#8217;s warfare, which elevated guerrilla tactics to a strategic level. Western accounts often fail to recognize these innovations and tend to downplay <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> sustained war effort.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: Professor Hu, 80 years have passed since the end of WWII and our world is still far from peaceful. President Xi Jinping once said, &#8220;Peace, like air and sunshine, is hardly noticed when people are benefiting from it. But none of us can live without it.&#8221; How do you interpret this observation?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>:<\/b> President Xi&#8217;s remarks are a reminder to us that we must never forget history and must learn from its lessons and cherish our hard-won peace. Many in the younger generations, having grown up in peacetime, know little of the hardships of the past. Although I did not experience the war, my elders often recounted its horrors to me, describing how the Chinese people endured unimaginable hardships, where survival itself was a bitter struggle.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> must make steady progress in its national rejuvenation while promoting global progress through peaceful diplomacy. Unlike certain countries that bully others, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> advocates for a global community of shared future, where all nations thrive together. This remains <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> ultimate vision.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: Some people fear for the outbreak of World War III. In your view, does humanity have sufficient wisdom to avoid it?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>:<\/b> The likelihood of a new world war breaking out today is basically nonexistent. If extremist forces similar to fascists were to come to power in certain countries and try to drag their nations into war, the people of those countries would oppose it, and the international community would not allow it.<\/p>\n<p>Socialist countries and the Global South or developing countries all stand firmly against a new world war. Many developed nations also oppose a new world war, as their prosperity depends on peace.<\/p>\n<p>Today, the global forces for peace hold overwhelming superiority \u2014\u00a0a stark contrast to the period before WWII. With the backbone consisting of <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> and many other countries, including developing ones, the world has now an unprecedented predominance of the forces for peace.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Diplomacy Talk\u00a0<br \/><\/i><\/b><i><a href=\"http:\/\/en.chinadiplomacy.org.cn\/node_8028184.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/en.chinadiplomacy.org.cn\/node_8028184.html<\/a> <br \/><\/i><b><i>Diplomacy Talk | Why does the West overlook <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> role in WWII?<br \/><\/i><\/b><i><a href=\"http:\/\/en.chinadiplomacy.org.cn\/2025-08\/22\/content_118037671.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/en.chinadiplomacy.org.cn\/2025-08\/22\/content_118037671.html<\/a>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"PRN_ImbeddedAssetReference\">  <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><!-- wp:html --><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"legendSpanClass\"><span class=\"xn-location\">BEIJING<\/span><\/span>, <span class=\"legendSpanClass\"><span class=\"xn-chron\">Aug. 22, 2025<\/span><\/span> \/PRNewswire\/ &#8212; A news report by chinadiplomacy.org.cn on <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> role in WWII:<\/p>\n<div class=\"PRN_ImbeddedAssetReference\" align=\"center\">\n<p title=\"Diplomacy Talk | Why does the West overlook China's role in WWII?\">&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp;<br \/><span>Diplomacy Talk | Why does the West overlook China&#8217;s role in WWII?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Why does the world remember Dunkirk but overlook <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> 14-year struggle against <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span>? In this episode of &#8220;Diplomacy Talk,&#8221; Professor <span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>, a World War II scholar at <span class=\"xn-location\">Wuhan<\/span> University, shares his insights on <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> wartime experience. He explains how <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span>, enduring staggering losses, stalled <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan&#8217;s<\/span> advance and helped shape the outcome of the war. Yet this chapter of history remains forgotten in much of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Hu discusses the reasons behind <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> long-standing marginalization in mainstream historical accounts and examines the growing international trend to reassess and recognize <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> critical contributions to Allied victory.<\/p>\n<p>Following is the transcript of the interview.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: How would you characterize the unique nature of <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> wartime experience if you compare it with the front-line battles seen in the European and Pacific theaters?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>:<\/b> First, the European theater saw massive corps-level engagements, often involving hundreds of thousands of or even over a million troops. This had much to do with the continent&#8217;s geography: the broad plains in <span class=\"xn-location\">Europe<\/span> made it possible to have enormous and mechanized formations and large-scale armored warfare.<\/p>\n<p>However, <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> terrains made such warfare impossible. <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> is a mountainous country \u2014 only the North China Plain offers a larger open ground. The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, with complex networks of waterways and lakes, posed insurmountable challenges for deployment of mechanized forces at scale.<\/p>\n<p>Second, by WWII, <span class=\"xn-location\">Europe<\/span> had undergone centuries of industrialization, which enabled its armies to have advanced weaponry and armored divisions. <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> simply did not have these capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Since <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> was outmatched by <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> in weaponry, it relied on human resilience and sacrifice. This made it necessary to have a protracted war of attrition, or a people&#8217;s war \u2014 strategies that drained Japanese militarists&#8217; strength, contained their advances and prevented their further expansion. <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> wartime experience was defined by the people&#8217;s war, an invention by the Chinese people. It was mainly a guerrilla warfare \u2014\u00a0an approach shaped by the country&#8217;s unique circumstances.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: The roles of nations like <span class=\"xn-location\">the United States<\/span> and <span class=\"xn-location\">Britain<\/span> in WWII have become widely known through classic films such as &#8220;Dunkirk,&#8221; &#8220;<span class=\"xn-location\">Pearl Harbor<\/span>&#8221; and &#8220;Midway.&#8221; Yet, the international community still lacks an objective and due knowledge of <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> contributions in WWII. To some extent, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> has become the &#8220;forgotten ally.&#8221; Why do you think this is the case? Is it because <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> has not produced blockbusters on this topic?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>:<\/b> Several factors have contributed to this. First, the WWII research worldwide reached its peak from the 1950s through the 1970s, but during this period, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> focused on consolidating its new government. As a result, Chinese academic research in this regard lagged 20 to 30 years behind the West. By the time <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> began producing significant scholarly work on its role in WWII in the 1980s and afterward promoted its findings internationally, the dominant narratives about the war had already been firmly established.<\/p>\n<p>Second, there is the lingering influence of &#8220;Eurocentrism&#8221; and &#8220;Western centrism.&#8221; Even today, many in the West hold onto these biases, approaching WWII history with a certain degree of arrogance and a Eurocentric perspective.<\/p>\n<p>Third, the Cold War has entrenched biases against <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> for several generations. Westerners have systematically downplayed <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> wartime contributions, and their textbooks and seminal works remain heavily centered on their respective nations, relegating <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> efforts to mere footnotes. In their narratives, <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> wartime role has always been portrayed as peripheral, never central to the victory of WWII.<\/p>\n<p>Only in recent years have a growing number of foreign scholars emerged from the shadow of the Cold War, re-examining WWII and <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> role in it with fresh objectivity. For example, <span class=\"xn-org\">Oxford University<\/span> professor <span class=\"xn-person\">Rana Mitter&#8217;s<\/span> book &#8220;Forgotten Ally: <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> World War II, 1937-1945&#8243; aims to recognize <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> important role and contribution in WWII. There are increasingly more Western scholars like Professor Mitter these days.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> announced its unconditional surrender just days after <span class=\"xn-location\">the United States<\/span> dropped two atomic bombs on its cities. As a result, some argue that without these U.S. bombs, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> could not have defeated <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> on its own. How do you assess this argument?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>: <\/b>To properly evaluate this, we must have the perspective of the entire 14-year war that went from <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan&#8217;s<\/span> initial aggression to its eventual surrender. Throughout this prolonged war, it was the Chinese theater that truly crippled and pinned down the bulk of <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan&#8217;s<\/span> military forces. In this context, we can see that the atomic bombs dropped by <span class=\"xn-location\">the United States<\/span> and the <span class=\"xn-location\">Soviet Union&#8217;s<\/span> offensive against the Japanese in <span class=\"xn-location\">Northeast China<\/span> served primarily to hasten <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan&#8217;s<\/span> surrender, rather than determine the war&#8217;s ultimate outcome.<\/p>\n<p>Undoubtedly, the Pacific theater saw extraordinary American military achievements, with U.S. forces advancing all the way to <span class=\"xn-location\">Okinawa<\/span>, right to <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan&#8217;s<\/span> doorstep. Yet when assessing the war as a whole, we must see that it was <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> that bore the heaviest sacrifices and consistently engaged the bulk of the Japanese army. This was fundamentally the root cause of <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan&#8217;s<\/span> ultimate defeat.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: How did the Chinese theater provide strategic support and coordination for other allies during the war?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>:<\/b> The allies adopted a &#8220;Europe First&#8221; strategy, focusing their efforts on defeating Nazi <span class=\"xn-location\">Germany<\/span> before turning to other fronts. After all, Nazi <span class=\"xn-location\">Germany<\/span> was the strongest fascist power.<\/p>\n<p>Under this &#8220;Europe First&#8221; strategy, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> made tremendous sacrifices. It must stand unbroken in its resistance war against Japanese aggression, because if the Chinese front had collapsed or if <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> had surrendered, the Allied operations in the European theater would not have proceeded smoothly.<\/p>\n<p>First, the <span class=\"xn-location\">Soviet Union<\/span> would have faced the danger of a two-front war, with <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> attacking from the east and <span class=\"xn-location\">Germany<\/span> from the west, squeezing it from both sides. Second, if <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> had been defeated, <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> might have advanced through the Pacific theater to <span class=\"xn-location\">Australia<\/span>, pushed into <span class=\"xn-location\">India<\/span> and the Indian Ocean, or even linked up with <span class=\"xn-location\">Germany<\/span> in the <span class=\"xn-location\">Middle East<\/span>. By bogging down <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> in the country, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> played a decisive role in stopping it from attacking the <span class=\"xn-location\">Soviet Union<\/span> and preventing its further expansion into <span class=\"xn-location\">Australia<\/span>, the Indian Ocean and <span class=\"xn-location\">India<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> was the key anchor of the &#8220;Europe First&#8221; strategy. Without <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> efforts to tie down and weaken the bulk of the Japanese army, the Allied forces would have faced far greater challenges in their war efforts.<\/p>\n<p>This was why former U.S. President <span class=\"xn-person\">Franklin D. Roosevelt<\/span>, former British Prime Minister <span class=\"xn-person\">Winston Churchill<\/span> and former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin all spoke highly of <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> resistance war against Japanese aggression and recognized its crucial contribution.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: What role do you think <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> played in the global anti-fascist war? How would you assess the scale of <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> contribution?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>:<\/b> Among all the major battlefronts of WWII, the one in <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> started the earliest and endured the longest. As a weaker nation, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> faced the greatest hardships, yet persevered through 14 years of war.<\/p>\n<p>By comparison, the Western allies&#8217; war experience lasted only four to five years, beginning with <span class=\"xn-location\">Germany&#8217;s<\/span> invasion of <span class=\"xn-location\">Poland<\/span> in 1939. That was much shorter than <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span>. In the first eight grueling years of the war, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> fought alone until <span class=\"xn-location\">Britain<\/span> and <span class=\"xn-location\">France<\/span> entered the war in 1939, ending <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> complete isolation. Yet it was not until 1941, when <span class=\"xn-location\">Germany<\/span> attacked the <span class=\"xn-location\">Soviet Union<\/span> and then <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> launched the Pacific War, that <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> truly emerged from strategic isolation.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> essentially relied on its own strength to sustain this prolonged war. Its contribution cannot be measured solely by the number of enemy forces eliminated or the scale of individual battles. Such quantification would be fundamentally unreasonable. Yet <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> resistance alone set <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> on the path to defeat.<\/p>\n<p>The international community has yet to properly acknowledge <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> pivotal role in WWII with fairness because it fought for the entire world rather than just for itself.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: What aspects of <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> wartime role do you feel are ignored or underestimated?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>:<\/b> Given the large-scale battles fought in the Western theaters, Western historians often dismiss <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> campaigns as &#8220;minor engagements&#8221; and do not consider them particularly significant. However, it was precisely these so-called small-scale operations \u2014 especially guerrilla warfare \u2014\u00a0that continuously depleted the vitality of <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> and forced it to repeatedly divert more troops to <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>When the Pacific War broke out, the bulk of the Japanese army was still fighting in <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span>. At that time, <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan<\/span> had more than 30 divisions deployed in <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span>, while only 10 divisions were assigned to the entire Pacific theater. These 10 divisions managed to sweep through <span class=\"xn-location\">Southeast Asia<\/span> and defeat American, British and Dutch forces, but <span class=\"xn-location\">Japan&#8217;s<\/span> 30-plus divisions in <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> ultimately failed to conquer the country. This stark contrast clearly demonstrates the immense significance of <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> resistance, which deserves objective historical analysis.<\/p>\n<p>The extraordinary duration of <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> resistance was closely tied to its unique strategic advantages and the new tactics of the warfare. Mao Zedong&#8217;s work &#8220;On Protracted War&#8221; provided the theoretical foundation for <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> approach. <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> adopted a distinct doctrine: protracted people&#8217;s warfare, which elevated guerrilla tactics to a strategic level. Western accounts often fail to recognize these innovations and tend to downplay <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> sustained war effort.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: Professor Hu, 80 years have passed since the end of WWII and our world is still far from peaceful. President Xi Jinping once said, &#8220;Peace, like air and sunshine, is hardly noticed when people are benefiting from it. But none of us can live without it.&#8221; How do you interpret this observation?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>:<\/b> President Xi&#8217;s remarks are a reminder to us that we must never forget history and must learn from its lessons and cherish our hard-won peace. Many in the younger generations, having grown up in peacetime, know little of the hardships of the past. Although I did not experience the war, my elders often recounted its horrors to me, describing how the Chinese people endured unimaginable hardships, where survival itself was a bitter struggle.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> must make steady progress in its national rejuvenation while promoting global progress through peaceful diplomacy. Unlike certain countries that bully others, <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> advocates for a global community of shared future, where all nations thrive together. This remains <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> ultimate vision.<\/p>\n<p><b>Diplomacy Talk: Some people fear for the outbreak of World War III. In your view, does humanity have sufficient wisdom to avoid it?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"xn-person\">Hu Dekun<\/span>:<\/b> The likelihood of a new world war breaking out today is basically nonexistent. If extremist forces similar to fascists were to come to power in certain countries and try to drag their nations into war, the people of those countries would oppose it, and the international community would not allow it.<\/p>\n<p>Socialist countries and the Global South or developing countries all stand firmly against a new world war. Many developed nations also oppose a new world war, as their prosperity depends on peace.<\/p>\n<p>Today, the global forces for peace hold overwhelming superiority \u2014\u00a0a stark contrast to the period before WWII. With the backbone consisting of <span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span> and many other countries, including developing ones, the world has now an unprecedented predominance of the forces for peace.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Diplomacy Talk\u00a0<br \/><\/i><\/b><i><a href=\"http:\/\/en.chinadiplomacy.org.cn\/node_8028184.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/en.chinadiplomacy.org.cn\/node_8028184.html<\/a> <br \/><\/i><b><i>Diplomacy Talk | Why does the West overlook <span class=\"xn-location\">China&#8217;s<\/span> role in WWII?<br \/><\/i><\/b><i><a href=\"http:\/\/en.chinadiplomacy.org.cn\/2025-08\/22\/content_118037671.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/en.chinadiplomacy.org.cn\/2025-08\/22\/content_118037671.html<\/a>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"PRN_ImbeddedAssetReference\">  <\/div>\n<p><!-- \/wp:html --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cision-pr-newswire","category-cision-pr-newswire-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thaipropertynews.com\/feeds\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thaipropertynews.com\/feeds\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thaipropertynews.com\/feeds\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thaipropertynews.com\/feeds\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thaipropertynews.com\/feeds\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thaipropertynews.com\/feeds\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thaipropertynews.com\/feeds\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thaipropertynews.com\/feeds\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thaipropertynews.com\/feeds\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}