Editor's note: 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. To remember history, honor fallen heroes, cherish peace and create a better future, CGTN has launched the "Reframing the War: China's Strategic Role and Historical Reckoning" series. This is the third article in the series. Ding Heng is a current affairs commentator. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

By the time Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, China had been fighting Japanese aggression for eight years. China first faced the onslaught of Japanese militarism in 1931, 10 years before the Pearl Harbor attack. Between 1931 and 1945, China's war with imperial Japan resulted in more than 35 million Chinese military and civilian casualties. Because of its vital role in the Allied Powers' defeat of fascism, China became one of the five permanent United Nations Security Council members. In retrospect, the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was an epic of bravery, unity and perseverance.

On September 18, 1931, the Japanese military staged a false flag incident near the city of Shenyang in northeast China, using it as a pretext to invade northeast China. Following the incident, China's Kuomintang (KMT) government adopted a policy of non-resistance, counting on the League of Nations to return northeast China to Chinese sovereignty.

However, General Ma Zhanshan, then acting governor of Heilongjiang Province, chose to disobey the non-resistance policy. Near a major bridge on Heilongjiang's Nen River, Ma's troops fought a half-month battle with Japanese forces in November 1931. Although the battle ended with Ma's outnumbered troops withdrawing from the area, he became a national hero for his courageous resistance.

A tobacco manufacturer in Shanghai even introduced a cigarette brand named after him and donated part of the brand's revenue to fund the resistance against Japan. Ma's story inspired more people to enlist in volunteer armies that waged war against the Japanese across much of northeast China. Many of those volunteer forces were later absorbed into the Northeast Counter-Japanese United Army.

By the 1930s, Japan had become an industrialized nation, with manufacturing and mining worth more than twice the value of its agricultural sector. By comparison, China was still a largely agrarian society. Facing a technologically advanced enemy, Chinese troops had only bravery and right tactics were essential.

After seizing northeast China, Japanese troops marched south in early 1933, leading to a series of military clashes that became known as the Defense of the Great Wall. The Xifengkou Pass, about 150 kilometers northeast of Beijing, is a strategic gateway on the Great Wall. It came under Japanese attack in March 1933, and the 29th Army of China's National Revolutionary Army was deployed to reinforce it.

Faced with the elite Japanese Kwantung Army, the poorly equipped Chinese troops turned to broad swords. In a midnight raid on an enemy camp, a daring do-or-die group consisting of 500 Chinese soldiers managed to kill over 700 Japanese soldiers using broadswords and limited modern weaponry. Before they departed for the raid, they took an oath: "Better to die a warrior than live a slave of a conquered nation." Only 23 Chinese soldiers survived that mission. Afterwards, the 29th Army launched several more night raids, forcing Japanese troops to retreat over 10 kilometers.

For the Chinese military, the legendary Battle of Xifengkou in 1933 was the first significant victory against Japan since the September 18 Incident, and one of the instances where Chinese troops used bravery and the right tactics to the utmost. It had a huge morale-boosting effect and inspired Chinese musician Mai Xin to compose a popular wartime anthem, "The Broadsword March." Some Japanese newspapers even described the battle as the imperial army's greatest disgrace in the 60 years.

Four years later, the 29th Army fought in the Lugou Bridge Incident, initially a local conflict 15 kilometers southwest of Beijing's city center. However, it's probably no coincidence that the incident quickly escalated into a full-scale war between China and Japan. Today, a road in downtown Beijing is named after Zhao Dengyu, the commander who organized the 500-soldier group in 1933 and lost his life in the incident.

From 1931 to 1937, China fought a regional war of resistance, with the battles mostly taking place in its northeast. In early 1932, Chinese troops also fought a month-long battle in Shanghai following a Japanese assault on the city.

The occupation of northeast China did not satisfy Japan's militarist ambition. It was only a matter of when it would launch a thorough invasion of China. On the other hand, a nationwide will to resist Japan's aggression was forged by 1937.

When the September 18 Incident occurred in 1931, the KMT government led by Chiang Kai-shek was preoccupied with fighting a civil war with the Communist Party of China (CPC), which somewhat explains its policy of non-resistance. Several years after that, Chiang's priority remained unchanged. However, this policy came with a price, as it encouraged even greater Japanese boldness and aggression.

By 1935, China had come to a very perilous situation. That summer, Japan imposed an agreement on the KMT government as a way to establish a Japanese-controlled puppet regime in north China. A sense of national crisis loomed, prompting the CPC to issue a proclamation calling for a voluntary mobilization of all Chinese people to resist Japanese aggression. A key CPC meeting that winter called for forming a united front with the KMT.

For the CPC, establishing a united front with the KMT meant embracing a former ally that had turned on them without warning in 1927. It required a lot of guts and determination. However, in the eyes of the CPC leadership, the urgency to defend national dignity prevailed over the feud with the KMT.

When Chiang Kai-shek was kidnapped by two generals in the northern city of Xi'an in late 1936, it was Zhou Enlai who used his political wisdom to negotiate Chiang's release. Upon his release, Chiang assured him he would lead an all-party resistance against Japan.

China largely maintained unity throughout its full-scale war with Japan from 1937 to 1945. The current national anthem was a famous military song during the war. Its lyrics, "Millions of hearts with one mind, brave the enemy's gunfire, march on," are probably the best illustration of China's national unity at the time. Although a CPC member wrote the lyrics, the song's popularity went beyond the CPC troops. Dai Anlan, a KMT general, designated the song as the anthem of his elite 200th Division.

After full-scale war broke out, the KMT government was forced to move to the interior as the Japanese occupied the major cities in the east. Along the way, Japanese troops committed atrocities on local populations, including the notorious Nanjing Massacre. There was a time when outsiders assumed China would soon surrender. Yet China's resistance never ceased. Because of China's enduring resistance, Japan was forced to keep more than 1 million troops in China throughout World War II, significantly weakening Tokyo's military resources to fight its conflicts with other powers such as the United States.

During the full-scale war, the KMT troops primarily fought major battles defending Chinese-held cities and regions. Meanwhile, the CPC's armed forces, smaller in size and more poorly equipped, carried out guerrilla activities in Japanese-occupied territories. Both forms of resistance played an important role and were coordinated. Perseverance was a shared characteristic of most Chinese forces, regardless of their political affiliation.

When the Japanese troops were near the end of the three-month battle to occupy Shanghai in the autumn of 1937, a battalion consisting of about 400 soldiers from the KMT army held out at a warehouse in the city for several days to buy time for other Chinese troops to withdraw from the battlefield. The outnumbered Chinese soldiers endured dozens of Japanese attacks and killed some 200 enemies. Later, they were permitted to retreat into the nearby West-controlled International Settlement, with their strength largely intact.

In February 1940, Yang Jingyu, an iconic commander of the Northeast Counter-Japanese United Army, continued fighting alone for another five days after the last two soldiers at his side were killed in action. Fighting in extreme cold and in a dire situation, Yang was eventually cornered and killed. The Japanese were curious about his perseverance because he had not eaten for several days. After an autopsy, they found only tree bark, cotton batting and grass roots in Yang's stomach – no food at all.

Changsha in central China was the first major city to successfully repel Japanese advances after full-scale war started. From 1939 to 1942, KMT troops fought three major battles to defend the city. Miraculously, Japanese casualties in the three battles crossed 110,000, exceeding the Chinese side's casualties of less than 94,000.

Strategically, retaining Changsha prevented the Japanese from consolidating their territories in south China, which played a key role in guaranteeing the security of the wartime capital, Chongqing. At a time when the war had entered a stalemate, attacking Changsha was a key step by Japan to try eliminating China's will to continue to fight. But the attempt failed.

How was China so persevering? First and foremost, China's resistance was rooted in a resolve to drive out the invaders.

In the summer of 1939, Nie Rongzhen, a senior commander of the CPC-led Eighth Route Army, wrote four Chinese calligraphic characters after his troops effectively countered a Japanese military campaign. They said, "Return my rivers and mountains."

It was a tribute to Song Dynasty patriotic hero Yue Fei, known for fighting against Jurchen invaders in the 12th century. "Return my rivers and mountains" was the leading theme in a poem written by him. General Nie and his troops carried forward Yue Fei's spirit. From 1937 to 1943, Nie commanded over 17,000 battles against Japanese forces and their puppets.

General Feng Yuxiang, who held various positions in the KMT government from 1935 to 1945, also wrote the same four characters in calligraphy during the war. Feng had criticized the non-resistance policy and in 1933, he was commander-in-chief of the Chahar People's Counter-Japanese Army, which carried out armed resistance across multiple sites north of Beijing.

In addition to the firm resolve of Chinese soldiers and commanders, civilian support was another primary source of China's persistent resistance.

On the eve of the first Battle of Changsha in 1939, the locals destroyed almost all the major roads in a vast area to the city's north, creating enormous obstacles for the advancing Japanese military personnel and equipment. Historians estimate that throughout the three major battles defending the city, a total of one million civilians assisted Chinese troops through intelligence gathering, food and medical aid delivery and other activities. General Xue Yue, the leading KMT commander in the battles, attributed the successful defense of the city to his troops' bravery and the local people's coordinated actions.

Across its guerrilla bases, the CPC helped local populations realize why China must fight against Japanese invasion. Xiao Ruping, a history professor at Zhejiang University, accessed materials related to the war at the National Archives in Britain. According to the archives, a Briton who had visited the CPC's guerrilla bases in north China wrote a report, saying that the local peasants, who had previously been indifferent to politics, understood the significance of resistance and were willing to take significant risks to help the Eighth Route Army fighters evade Japanese searches.

There were countless stories about the bravery, unity and perseverance of the soldiers and ordinary people during the War of Resistance and each deserves a book. This spirit played a central role in China's final victory.

Looking back, China has plenty of reasons to feel proud of itself. Spiritual power matters. And as China undertakes a task to pursue national rejuvenation peacefully, the same spirit will prevail on its present-day journey.

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