On the eve of the military parade on September 3, the Chinese Communist Party’s official media published a series of articles to promote and boost morale. Aside from reinforcing the narrative that the CCP was a cornerstone in the Anti-Japanese War, they also took the opportunity to propagandize the concept of “the community of shared destiny” for mankind, which has nothing to do with the victory of the anti-Japanese war. What exactly are the motives behind these two concepts?
On August 29, Xinhua News Agency published a political commentary titled “Eternal Defenders of the Achievements of Chinese Civilization and the Cause of World Peace.” Without delving too much into the absurdity of the article’s argument and specific reasoning, some concrete examples cited within the article effectively refute its conclusions.
One example described a photo on display at the Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall with a “broken road” theme. The article narrates: “Laborers used earth-made iron tongs to twist off a road nail on a steel rail, and began to push and lift the railway section. When the flash of the magnesium lamp came, the commander immediately issued the order to retreat, and enemy artillery shells followed.”
These sentences point out several issues. Firstly, it is known that the Hundred Regiments Offensive mainly focused on destroying Japanese-controlled railways, roads, and telephone lines at night, with dismantling railways as the main objective and combat playing a supporting role or even nonexistent. The main characters were not the Eighth Route Army but the “laborers.”
Moreover, I have previously seen that photo, where the railway was uplifted as a whole without being overturned. Therefore, this description supplements the situation at that time, showing that the retreat occurred immediately after the photo was taken because using magnesium lamps for nighttime photography would have made them vulnerable to enemy attacks.
In other words, the railway was not destroyed. This is why the Japanese quickly repaired the damaged railways after the Hundred Regiments Offensive, even faster than anticipated.
This is the earliest staged performance by the CCP that I know of, more than ten years earlier than Lei Feng’s staged performance.
Two other examples predictably mentioned the Hundred Regiments Offensive and the Battle of Pingxingguan. Regarding the Hundred Regiments Offensive, the article claimed, “In a cruel battle spanning more than 1800 times for several months, the Eighth Route Army soldiers killed and wounded over 20,000 Japanese and puppet troops.”
In an enduring battle spanning months, they failed to find a decent example to boast about, resorting to vague descriptions like “holding simple weapons, charging against aerial cannons, blocking gunshots with their chests, and paving the way with their flesh and blood.”
However, the actual historical records show that the Hundred Regiments Offensive aimed to disrupt the traffic lines and mines under Japanese control in north China through surprise attacks. Participating units included the 120th and 129th Divisions of the Eighth Route Army and 22 regiments from the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region. After the Hundred Regiments Offensive, the damaged Jin-Pu Railway (Beiping-Hankou Railway), Tongpu Railway, Shitai Railway, and Jingxi Coal Mine Area were swiftly restored to operation by the Japanese forces.
According to Japanese records, there are two sets of figures. The Japanese war history records stated that the total Japanese casualties included 467 killed, 33 missing, and 251 wounded, with a total of 751 casualties.
Based on classified data from the Japanese Army’s medical department and internal confidential documents from the Japanese North China Expeditionary Force, from August to December 1940, the entire Japanese North China Expeditionary Force suffered 2,349 killed and 4,004 wounded. Even by the lowest estimates, the casualties of over 700 were still considerable.
The Battle of Taierzhuang, dubbed by historian Barbara Tuchman as the “first significant defeat of the Japanese Army since its establishment,” resulted in 16,000 Japanese casualties.
However, during the entire Anti-Japanese War, the CCP only fought one decent battle, whereas the Nationalist Army engaged in 22 large-scale battles. The Battle of Taierzhuang was part of the Xuzhou Campaign, accompanied by more than 200 significant battles.
This comparison is completely unjustifiable. Mao Zedong had previously said that after the victory in the anti-Japanese War, Chiang Kai-shek descended the mountain to claim the victory fruits, only later to realize that the CCP seized credit for the Nationalist Army’s achievements, as if they were the ones plucking the peaches.
Regarding international aid, the article even mentioned the sacrifice of Soviet flight squadron leader Kuryishenko on Chinese soil but conveniently omitted the mention of the American Volunteer Group Flying Tigers. This selective omission aligns with the CCP’s pro-Soviet, anti-American approach since its inception.
The article boldly declares, “All those who dedicated themselves to the Chinese people’s war against Japan are anti-Japanese heroes and national heroes.”
Can those mid-to-senior-level military officers listed as war criminals in the CCP’s records, those who were executed or brutally purged in successive movements after the CCP took power, or the children of former Nationalist Army officers who lost their educational and job qualifications be considered anti-Japanese or national heroes?
If they are still regarded as such, wouldn’t that amount to acknowledging the CCP as the criminals who persecuted national heroes?
The article concludes by promoting Xi Jinping’s proposed concept of building a community of shared destiny for mankind. In fact, the CCP has published special writings on this topic.
Also on August 29, at a press conference commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory over Japan, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu lavishly praised Xi Jinping’s community of shared destiny for mankind. After using a series of high-flown flattering terms, he claimed that Xi Jinping’s significant concept provided answers to the world’s questions of “where humanity is headed,” “where history is going,” and “what era it is.” According to Ma, Xi Jinping’s vision for a community of shared destiny clarified the direction for world peace and development.
Furthermore, Ma asserted that the construction of a community of shared destiny has evolved from a Chinese initiative to becoming an international consensus. He cited its inclusion in eight consecutive UN resolutions, Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit declarations, eight BRICS leaders’ meeting declarations, and the core principles being incorporated into the UN “Future Contract,” making it a significant international public product today.
It’s hard to argue that Ma’s statements weren’t a form of flattery towards Xi Jinping, elevating him to an unreachable status.
This is reminiscent of the strategy employed by Liu Shaoqi and others after the Three Years of Natural Disasters and the 7,000-People Convention, using the reinforcement of personality cults as an exchange to sideline Mao Zedong. Of course, this move eventually sowed the seeds for the Cultural Revolution. Mao Zedong capitalized on the cult of personality to incite the masses into rebellion and regain supreme power, nearly wiping out his opponents. However, history does not repeat itself, and Xi Jinping lacks Mao’s so-called “glorious achievements” and the power to launch another Cultural Revolution.
As for Ma Zhaoxu’s speech and the CCP’s explanation of the concept of a community of shared destiny for mankind, they are filled with lofty adjectives but lack substantial content, leaving people unclear about what a community of shared destiny for mankind entails.
Typically, a theory or system should have a core set of content that is sum…
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