By Mercy A. Kuo and Angelica O. Tang
Insight from Rana Mitter”
The Rebalance authors Mercy Kuo and Angie Tang regularly engage subject-matter experts, policy practitioners and strategic thinkers across the globe for their diverse insights into the U.S. rebalance to Asia. This conversation with Dr. Rana Mitter – Deutsche Bank Director of the University China Centre and Professor of History and Modern Politics of China and Fellow of St. Cross College at Oxford University; author and editor of numerous publications, including Forgotten Ally: China’s War with Japan (1937-45), Modern China: A Very Short Introduction, and Ruptured Histories: War and Memory in Post-Cold War Asia – is the 29th in “The Rebalance Insight Series.”
Explain the correlation between historical memory and identity formation in China’s evolution as a 21st century global power.
History is becoming more, not less important as China reshapes its identity in the present day. The military parade in Tiananmen Square on September 3, 2015 had at its heart not just tanks and troops, but a handful of veterans, aged between 90 and 102, who had served in the War of Resistance against Japan from 1937 to 1945. Half of the veterans were from the Communist armies under Mao, and half from the Nationalists under China’s then ruler, Chiang Kai-shek. This was an immensely important piece of symbolism, as it showed that China had moved away from the division of the civil war, when Nationalists and Communists and fought against one another, and instead was stressing its shared history of wartime resistance against invasion. This traumatic experience of war, in which 14 million Chinese died, 100 million became refugees, and 500,000 Japanese troops were held down in China’s territory, has now become a prime source of legitimacy for Beijing. Just as the U.S. used its wartime victory to plant what has become a permanent presence in Asia, some argue, so China should now use its own record of wartime sacrifice to demand territorial and jurisdictional influence in Asia also. There is a new interest in events such as the Cairo Conference of 1943 and the Potsdam Declaration of 1945, as China seeks legitimacy in its wartime alliances for its regional claims today.
Read the full story at The Diplomat