Japan can't rewrite fascist history

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© Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu
Photo taken on April 10, 2015 shows the displayed exhibits during an exhibition marking the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese people's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province.

    
This year marks three 70-year anniversaries for China: the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the end of World's Anti-Fascist War and the establishment of the United Nations.

In the war against Fascist Powers and Japanese militarism, the Allied Forces, including the United States, Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom and others had made tremendous contributions to achieve victory that would end World War II, which was witnessed by the whole world with peace treaties signed.

In recent decades, the Soviet Union had disintegrated and the so-called 'Color Revolutions' sparked regime change for a number of sovereign nations. Hence, the world keeps changing at the blink of an eye. Meanwhile here in Asia, after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe assumed office, his administration has made alliances with nationalist right-ring forces who believe that historical facts can be challenged and distorted.

It's important to remember history so as to explore a better future. We have an obligation to tell the world that those who intentionally falsify history for their political benefits can inflict horrendous harm on the global community. The China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) hosted an international seminar in Beijing to celebrate the end of World War II as a victory against Fascism. Government officials and scholars from China and Russia have recounted contributions made by China and the Soviet Union during the war, and they discussed its historic implications for the current international political climate in order to fight against reckless attempts to distort WWII history.

CIIS President Su Ge pointed out that during WWII, China was the main battlefield ground in Asia, while it was the same for the Soviet Union in Europe. Both countries had played key roles to defeat Fascist Powers. And due to recent geo-political developments, China and Russia should join hands together again to support a new type of 'win-win' for international relations.

The vice president of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Kozhokin Evgenij Mihajlovich criticized the erroneous tendency of some critics who claimed that Communist Party members in Europe and Asia during World War II did not fight hard enough against Fascist Powers. He also blasted allegations that parallel the Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin with Germany's Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and warned that it is dangerous to link socialism with totalitarianism especially with malicious political intentions.

Researcher and former director of the Institute of Russian, Eastern European & Central Asian Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Wu Enyuan believes that China and the Soviet Union hold legal rights to certain territorial claims based on relevant clauses from The Cairo Declaration, which was jointly signed by the US, China and Great Britain on December 1, 1943. He is supported by the Standing Vice President of CIIS, Ruan Zongze. They also cite the Potsdam Declaration to support their claims, which was jointly signed on July 26, 1945 by the US, China and Britain, while the Soviet Union signed the document later on.

Delegates of the two-day seminar discussed other topics as well, such as the mutual cooperation and friendship between China and Russia during WWII, the development of a new world order afterwards, along with topics of current global affairs and the future direction of relations between both nations in the new era.

Attendees at the forum also included delegates from the Department of European-Central Asian Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the Russian Embassy, Uzbekistan Embassy, Belarus Embassy, Kazakhstan Embassy, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Far-East Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences.

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