Significance of 3 September Grand Military Parade in Beijing

The parade is a re-assertion of Chinese nationalism in a period when the world is still hostile to it.

On 3 September, China will be holding a grand military parade to commemorate its victory over Japan in 1945. Victory over Japan is significant also because, four years later, the Chinese Nationalists fled to Taiwan, allowing the Communists to take over and establish the People’s Republic of China.

Western and Japanese commentators see the parade as muscle-flexing to intimidate the world, but for the Chinese it recalls the sacrifices of the past in a 14-year war of attrition (from 1931 to 1945) which cost hundreds of thousands of lives. It is a re-assertion of Chinese nationalism in a period when the world is still hostile to it.

A commentary in the Chinese People’s Daily last week claimed that China’s contribution to fighting Japan in World War II was “selectively ignored and underestimated by some,” adding that the Communist Party’s wartime efforts were “deliberately belittled and vilified.”

Long-Drawn-Out and Meandering Sino-Japan War

While for the rest of Asia and the world, World War II began in 1939 in Europe and in 1941 in Asia, for China the war began in 1931 itself when Japan had begun using coercive methods to dominate and occupy China.

The Sino-Japanese war could be divided into three phases: (1) a period of rapid Japanese advance until the end of 1938, (2) a period of stalemate until 1944, (3) a final phase, when Allied counterattacks, principally in the Pacific and on Japan itself, brought about Japan’s defeat in August 1945.

The Japanese had first established themselves in Manchuria in north-eastern China, partly through the Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin and partly through leasehold on the Liaodong Peninsula. But the Chinese resented Japanese overlordship. Zhang Xueliang, Zhang Zuolin’s son and the ruler of Manchuria, wanted to cast off the Japanese yoke and align himself with the Kuomintang (KMT or the Chinese Nationalist Party).

On the night of 18–19 September 1931, the Japanese swung into action, seizing Mukden (present-day Shenyang) in north-east China, formerly called Manchuria.

Facing little resistance from Nationalist military forces, the Japanese established the puppet state of “Manchukuo” in 1932 and installed the deposed Qing emperor Puyi as its titular head.

But Japan soon demonstrated that it was not content with confining its control to Manchuria. Therefore, in 1934 it claimed suzerainty over the whole of China. In 1935 the Japanese forced the Chinese to withdraw from Hebei in north China and Chahar (now part of Inner Mongolia in north-east China).

Nationalist (KMT) leader Chiang Kai-shek did not offer much opposition, preferring instead to pursue his campaign against Chinese Communist forces led by Mao Zedong. However, in December 1936, Chiang was seized by forces under the command of his own generals and was compelled to align with the Communists to form a United Front against Japan.

The United Front led by the Nationalists and Communists was a formidable group, though it lacked the sophisticated weapons the Japanese had. Initially, the Japanese had their way. They captured a majority of cities as far west as Hankou (now part of Wuhan) and most of the rail lines.

Beijing and Tianjin were occupied by the Japanese in July 1937. After fierce fighting, the Chinese armies were driven out of Shanghai by the middle of November 1937. Nanking (Nanjing), the Nationalist capital, fell in mid-December 1937. In the massacre that followed, 300,000 Chinese civilians and surrendered troops were slaughtered. Tens of thousands of women were raped on the orders of Japanese commander Matsui Iwane.

In October 1938 the Chinese lost Canton (now Guangzhou). The Japanese pressed northward and westward from Beijing along the railway lines into Shansi and Inner Mongolia. They dominated coastal Shantung and took possession of the vast railway networks. The Japanese dominated the skies after pulverising the Chinese air force. The casualties were enormous.

Yet to the surprise of the Japanese, the Chinese were undaunted. Chiang Kai-shek moved his capital to Chungking (now Chongqing), in Szechwan (now Sichuan), in south-west China. The Chinese leadership migrated to the far west, to Sichuan and Yunnan.

The Communists dominated the vast countryside while the Japanese controlled the cities and railway lines. The Japanese were harried by guerrillas, with the Communists being particularly successful in waging guerrilla warfare.

The Communists also organised village self-defence units, created local governments, and expanded their armies. The Eighth Route Army was operating in the mountains and plains of north China, and the New Fourth Army was in the lower Yangtze valley.

In 1939, Japan tried to subdue Chinese resistance by imposing a blockade. China’s main seaports were occupied, from the south to the north. When, in 1940, France fell to the Germans, Japan took over French Indochina.

For a time, Japan induced the British to close the road that led from Burma (Myanmar) to Kunming in Yunnan, but the Burma Road reopened and became one of the vital supply lines for the Allies in the war.

In December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, thus dragging the US and Britain into the war in Asia. But this did not bring relief to China. Its economic problems seemed insurmountable as all industries were in Japanese-occupied east China. The western provinces struggled to support the huge armies that were ensconced there.

However, the economic problems were a blessing in disguise for the Communists. They began to exploit the people’s discontent against the Nationalist government and the Japanese. The Nationalist government headed by Chiang resorted to repression. It was also inefficient. However, no one could doubt his commitment to fighting the Japanese.

Chiang’s main enemy was Mao Zedong, whose power grew in north and east China, which were designated as “liberated areas.” Even in the midst of war, the Communists introduced economic, political and social reforms in the liberated areas, which improved the lot of the peasantry. They introduced a system of local government. The Communist Party cadres freely mixed with the hoi polloi. During the period, Nationalists and Communists frequently clashed.

In the last phase of World War II, from early 1944 to August 1945, some material and financial help began to come to China from the US. The Americans were flying supplies from Assam in India across the Himalayas. Chinese pilots and mechanics were being trained. Japanese strongholds were bombed by US and Chinese planes.

But while the Chinese Nationalist troops were too debilitated to fight, the Communists were gaining ground under Mao Zedong, taking on the Japanese, who were withdrawing troops from China to fight in the Pacific theatre. This enabled the Chinese Communist armies to move in and “liberate” more areas.

The US tried diplomatic means to bring about unity between the Nationalists and Communists as it wanted a united China to ensure a stable Asia. But attempts made by Gen. George C. Marshall failed. Americans working closely with Chiang, like Gen. Joseph Stilwell, thought that he was both incompetent and corrupt, cornering US aid to fight the Communists and not the Japanese. 

Francis Eugene Jones, in his MA thesis on United States Relations with Chiang Kai-Shek, 1937-1949 (1962), says that in July 1947 General Albert C. Wedemeyer was sent to mediate but he too failed. Also, if Wedemeyer’s recommendations were followed, the US would have had to commit American troops far larger than Washington was willing to make.

Moreover, Chiang had ceased to follow American suggestions even as Russia was emerging as a new threat.

The US looked on helplessly as the Communists overran China, driving Chiang and the Nationalists to Formosa (Taiwan). In 1949 the Communists formed the People’s Republic of China. Nevertheless, the US continued to support the Nationalists led by Chiang, recognising his Nationalist regime in Taiwan as the legitimate government of China, with a permanent seat in the UN Security Council with veto power.

It was not until 1978, when the threat from the USSR was looming over the US, that Washington recognised Communist China, breaking diplomatic ties with Taiwan.