China urges US to revise WWII narrative after praise for its ally Japan

By Saadet Gokce

ISTANBUL (AA) - China on Friday called on the US to revise its view of World War II after Washington, DC, praised Japan for “safeguarding peace and prosperity in the Pacific” for the past 80 years.

“Abandon geopolitical calculations, uphold a correct historical view of WWII, and join the international community in safeguarding the post-WWII international order,” said Senior Colonel Jiang Bin, spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defense.

Beijing’s reaction came after US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce last week described Japan as a partner that ended a “devastating war in the Pacific 80 years ago” and has since “stood shoulder to shoulder to safeguard peace and prosperity in the Pacific.”

“Japanese fascists committed heinous crimes and inflicted untold sufferings on people around the world, including the Americans,” Jiang said.

He accused Washington, DC, of having “amnesia” about this history and warned that “whitewashing Japan’s aggression and war crimes is a grave affront to historical justice.”

World War II ended in 1945 after Japan’s unconditional surrender, which followed years of conflict in which the country lost an estimated 2.3 million military personnel and 800,000 civilians.

Separately, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency published a commentary accusing the US of being a “surveillance empire.”

It cited reports that Washington, DC, had “covertly embedded location-tracking devices in targeted shipments of advanced chips deemed at high risk of diversion to China” and was “weighing turning commercial hardware into a tool for surveillance and control.”