Remembering past for the sake of the future

Monday was the 88th anniversary of the July 7 Incident, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which marked the beginning of Japan's full-scale invasion of China.

Eighty-eight years ago, Japanese troops stationed in the suburbs of Beijing provoked the Chinese army and then launched a fierce attack on Beijing and seized the city, touching off the all-out Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45). The Japanese aggression had started even earlier, back in 1931, when Japanese armed forces attacked the Chinese army in the city of Shenyang, and took over Northeast China.

The military and civilian casualties China suffered in the 14 years from 1931 to 1945 amounted to more than 35 million. And the atrocities Japanese troops committed, such as the Nanjing Massacre and the horrific activities of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit, have left deep historical scars.

As President Xi Jinping has emphasized, the war was the first complete victory in resisting foreign aggression that China has won in modern times. This great triumph crushed the plot of the Japanese militarists to colonize and enslave China, and put an end to China's national humiliation of suffering successive defeats at the hands of foreign aggressors.

More than eight decades have passed. China is not what it was, and neither is Japan, the perpetrator of the war. But that period of history should never be forgotten.

The nation remembers the miseries the Chinese people suffered during the war and the courage they mustered in their fight against the aggressors during that period because they help cement its resolve to realize its national rejuvenation.

It is also because that part of history will always be a reminder of how important peace is, and so further urge the Chinese people to do all that they can to defend world peace and promote the reform of the global governance system for the sake of global development, peace and harmony. Which is embodied in the community with a shared future for mankind that President Xi envisions.

For Japan, therefore, remembering that period of history is not just for atoning for what it did to the Chinese people, but also for treasuring the neighborly relations between the two countries and the two peoples. So it is important for Japan to learn the lesson from that part of history, which teaches us that light will always overcome darkness, and that justice will ultimately prevail over evil. Japan should never do anything to try and whitewash the atrocities its troops committed during that war, and never do anything to deny its historical responsibility for that war as those nefarious deeds are already part of the historical record and cannot be erased.

The Japanese people should be aware about the nature of Japanese militarism at the time, and be clear that the mistakes of the past should not be repeated. The residue of Japanese militarism must be eliminated. Only when Japan has thoroughly learned the lesson of that war will it be possible for the country to develop healthy neighborly ties with regional countries.

China has developed to be the world's second-largest economy, and is now the world's largest manufacturing powerhouse. Despite what it has achieved in the past decades, especially since it initiated its reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, China has reiterated time and again its steadfast commitment to a peaceful rise, which has found expression in the three global initiatives it has put forward as well as the Belt and Road Initiative it proposed in 2013.

The future of the peoples of all countries is interrelated; countries should not seek to ensure their own development and security at the expense and to the detriment of the development and security of others.

With humankind seemingly having come to another crossroad of unity or division, dialogue or confrontation, win-win cooperation or zero-sum games, it is imperative that all countries adhere to the principle of equal and indivisible security, and make the utmost effort to establish comprehensive, integrated and sustainable security throughout the world on a peaceful collective basis.

The anniversary of the July 7 Incident will always serve as a reminder to the Chinese nation and the Chinese people. China will therefore do its part to defend world peace and promote reform of the global governance system for a fairer and more just world order.