China weaponizes WWII memory against Japan via Xi's US visit — SkimNews
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- Xi Jinping used his Washington visit to strategically undermine the US-Japan alliance; Trump recalled US-China 'greatness...fighting in World War Two' while omitting mention of the postwar alliance with Japan.
- Xi's UNGA banquet speech claimed Chinese and American peoples 'stood shoulder to shoulder' against Japanese aggressors, obscuring that wartime China was led by Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists, not Mao's Communists.
- PM Takaichi Sanae has long revisionist WWII views dating to a 1994 Diet speech calling Japan's war 'legally justifiable' and pledging to revise the Murayama apology — views Beijing has used to link Taiwan, Japanese imperialism, and Japan's defense buildup.
- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi invoked the anniversary of the Tokyo war crimes trials in talks with Japan's Iwaya Takeshi, warning that Japan reviving militarism 'will have no future' and 'have no future.'
- China and Russia retain the ability to block removal of the UN charter's obsolete 'enemy states' clause naming Japan and Germany; China's deputy ambassador Sun Lei defended its existence after Takaichi called for its removal.
- China's September 80th anniversary commemoration featured a military parade attended by Putin and Kim Jong Un and paired with films '731' and 'Dead to Rights' aimed at Japanese wartime conduct.
Why it matters: Takaichi's revisionist history and Trump's apparent indifference to the US-Japan alliance give Beijing a coordinated opening to reframe Japan's defense buildup as 'neomilitarism' while publicly isolating Tokyo. With China and Russia able to block removal of the obsolete UN 'enemy states' clause, wartime framing actively constrains Japan's diplomatic options.
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