• Mark anniversary of Chinese victory over Japan, Hong Kong minister urges schools
• China boy with 8 terminal illnesses writes heartbreaking letter asking mum to stop treatment
• China launches tiny Mexican satellites in rare North American rocket contract
• How China’s military parades evolved over the years: from guerrilla warfare to hi-tech
• Chinese boy earns US$550 a month selling milk tea for fun; mum praises business acumen
• How China could turn Paracel Islands into submarine kill zone in South China Sea
• Xi to Modi: the Chinese ‘dragon’ and the Indian ‘elephant’ need to be good friends
• Chinese officials urge family to cremate sick man lying on floor, shocking mainland public
• Chinese tourists’ love affair with Paris deepens as visits surge 15%
• At SCO summit, Xi Jinping frames China as a source of certainty
• Indonesia protests: Prabowo cancels China trip, Beijing issues security warning
• Chinese man discovers via DNA test that both sons are not his after fighting with 1 of them
• 80 years on, Southeast Asia’s Chinese diaspora remember wartime sacrifices
• Could remembering shared World War II history be the key to better China-US ties?

Mark anniversary of Chinese victory over Japan, Hong Kong minister urges schools

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3323818/mark-anniversary-chinese-victory-over-japan-hong-kong-minister-urges-schools?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong’s education minister has asked schools to hold events to mark the 80th anniversary of China’s World War II victory over Japan in the new academic year, while urging kindergartens to take the opportunity to instil patriotism in pupils.

In a social media post on Sunday, Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin shared two letters that were sent separately to local schools and kindergartens on Friday.

“I encourage schools to arrange commemorative and learning activities to deepen students’ understanding of the history of the [war of resistance against Japanese aggression], remember the indomitable spirit of the martyrs in defending the country, and cultivate a sense of national pride and a sense of responsibility to pass down history,” she said.

To mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression and the global defeat of fascism, there will be a military parade in Beijing on Wednesday. The term is commonly used by Beijing to refer to the Second Sino-Japanese War, which was part of World War II.

In 2014, the National People’s Congress designated September 3 as Victory Day to celebrate the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on September 2, 1945.

In Choi’s letter to primary and secondary schools, she advised teachers to utilise digital education tools, apply artificial intelligence more in teaching and run sports meets involving athletes as extracurricular activities to encourage students to exercise.

She added that patriotic education was still a key theme, noting that schools should organise commemorative events on other “important dates”.

The minister cited the September 18 anniversary of the Mukden Incident, a false-flag attack in 1931 by Japanese troops that was used to justify the invasion of the historical region of Manchuria.

Choi also pointed to the national memorial day on December 13 to mark the Nanking massacre. The incident in 1937 saw Japanese troops slaughter about 300,000 soldiers and civilians in a six-week campaign of terror in the city, now called Nanjing.

The memorial events aimed to boost students’ understanding of history, “commemorate the indomitable spirit of the martyrs who defended the country”, cultivate patriotism and ensure youngsters learned from history and cherished the “hard-earned peace”, she said.

She also urged schools to “actively participate” in commemorative activities organised by her bureau.

In her letter to kindergartens, Choi also said the 80th anniversary was a “good opportunity to carry out patriotic education”.

She also said it was essential that children from an early age be taught to appreciate Chinese culture, as well as cultivate a sense of belonging to the country and a national identity.

China boy with 8 terminal illnesses writes heartbreaking letter asking mum to stop treatment

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3323469/china-boy-8-terminal-illnesses-writes-heartbreaking-letter-asking-mum-stop-treatment?utm_source=rss_feed

A 13-year-old boy who is suffering from eight terminal conditions has written a heartbreaking letter from his intensive care unit (ICU) bed begging his mother to give up on him.

Liu Fuyu from central China’s Henan province only weighs 15kg.

He was recently admitted to the ICU for a fifth time due to kidney failure.

His doctor, Huo Yufeng at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, told the local media outlet Henan TV that the boy was suffering from a range of terminal conditions.

Liu barely has the strength to speak because of his condition.

His mother, surnamed Li, said one day he sent her a message saying he missed her, from which she knew he was feeling unwell, so she immediately rushed him to the hospital.

Huo said if she had not taken him for treatment there and then, he might have died.

Liu was also born with multiple physical deformities and because his right hand was particularly contorted, he had learned to write with his left hand.

Due to the limited time for visits in ICU units, Li wrote letters to her son every day to cheer him up.

“Hang in there, son,” she wrote in one.

One day, she received a letter back from him. The Chinese characters in the letter were crooked, showing how much hardship he endured just trying to write.

This was the letter in which the youngster begged his mother to stop his treatment.

He said he was scared and wanted to go home.

“Mum, let’s return the medicines. They did not work. I will recover if I go home,” Liu wrote.

Li read her son’s letter in tears. She said he had been through so much and the pain in his body was the pain in her heart.

She told her son: “I will save you no matter what.”

Huo said his kidneys need long-term dialysis and he might even need a kidney transplant.

The costly treatment is also a burden for the single mother, who said he often had to be discharged because the family had run out of money.

Liu’s 10-year-old sister was thoughtful and volunteered to carry her brother whenever they went out.

The boy’s plight has moved many people online to tears.

“Poor kid. Hope he gets better soon,” said one online observer.

“Although I would say he might suffer less pain if they give up the treatment, I can understand how painful it is for his mother to let him go,” said another.

China launches tiny Mexican satellites in rare North American rocket contract

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3323810/china-launches-tiny-mexican-satellites-rare-north-american-rocket-contract?utm_source=rss_feed

Mexico has become the second country in North America to send satellites into orbit using a Chinese rocket – more than half a decade after Canada blazed the trail.

Two satellites from ThumbSat, a start-up based in Tijuana, just across the border from San Diego, were among a batch of seven launched into sun-synchronous orbit earlier this month by Beijing-based CAS Space on board its solid-fuel Kinetica-1 rocket.

ThumbSat hailed the launch of its femtosatellites – each weighing less than 100 grams – as Mexico’s first commercial mission to low Earth orbit. “The mission is simple but powerful: to prove that satellites no longer need to be big to be meaningful,” it said.

ThumbSat-1 carries a selfie payload while ThumbSat-2 is equipped with an artistic one. The company also plans to install small, low-cost receiving stations across Mexico, allowing students and amateur users to pick up signals and take part in the mission.

CAS Space said the launch showed the growing international interest in its rockets, which offered “a good balance of cost and reliability”. It also called the mission a step forward in China’s efforts to expand space cooperation worldwide.

It was “a milestone for China’s entry into the North American commercial launch market”, it said.

The two ThumbSat satellites were developed in Mexico, with CAS Space providing a custom-built separation deployer designed for modular upgrades and future scalability.

In a social media post, ThumbSat programme manager Ahalya Araes said the launch was the result of more than a year of close collaboration between the two teams.

“What makes this achievement special isn’t just the hardware or the launch, but the journey that led here: countless hurdles, late nights, too many ‘noes’ before the ‘yes’, and a small international team that never stopped believing,” she wrote.

“ThumbSat-1 and ThumbSat-2 now circle the Earth as proof that space can be accessible, imaginative and within reach for more people than ever before.”

Canada was the first North American country to ride a Chinese rocket – a Long March-11 that deployed six satellites, including a technology demonstration nanosatellite from Toronto-based start-up Kepler Communications, in 2018.

Chinese rockets rarely launch North American satellites, in part because of US export-control laws. A key regulation is the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which restricts exports of sensitive technology, including many satellite components.

Even if a satellite is not built in the US it can still fall under ITAR if it contains American parts. That makes Chinese launches legally complicated, or outright prohibited, for many companies in the US and allied countries.

While access for North American operators remains limited, China has forged deeper partnerships elsewhere, particularly in South America.

Its most prominent collaboration has been with Brazil, with the two countries jointly developing and launching a series of Earth observation satellites under the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite programme.

Over the past two decades, this partnership has produced multiple satellites for environmental monitoring, disaster response and agricultural planning, making Brazil one of China’s most important space partners outside Asia.

---

How China’s military parades evolved over the years: from guerrilla warfare to hi-tech

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3323814/how-chinas-military-parades-evolved-over-years-guerrilla-warfare-hi-tech?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese military parades are known for their spectacular goose-stepping and formations, but they also provide important hints about the structure of the People’s Liberation Army and its new weapons.

The history of these parades highlights how the PLA has evolved from being a guerrilla force that relied on captured foreign weapons to a modern force that aims to compete with the US in terms of combat ability and advanced equipment.

The first of these parades was held on October 1, 1949 – the date of the proclamation of the People’s Republic.

It involved more than 16,400 personnel from the navy, army and air force and featured equipment captured from the Japanese in the second world war and the Nationalists in the ensuing civil war, including American P-51 Mustang fighters, British Mosquito bombers and Japanese Type 97 medium tanks.

A year later, at the parade to mark National Day, as China had designated October 1, the total number of participants exceeded 24,200, making it the largest to date, with a lot of imported Soviet weaponry on display.

At the time the National Day parade was an annual event, and by 1959 the weapons on display were mostly domestically produced, even though they were still largely imitations of Soviet equipment and made with the help of the USSR.

1957 also saw the first naval parade featuring four destroyers off the east coast city of Qingdao, an event that officially marked the re-emergence of China as a maritime power after a century.

After 1959, the authorities decided they would only stage a National Day parade every 10 years.

However, as a result of the chaos unleashed during the Cultural Revolution, the next parade did not take place until 1984.

This parade was broadcast live on state television and featured no fewer than 28 Chinese-made pieces of equipment, including the first public appearance of the Dongfeng-5 intercontinental ballistic missile.

This confirmed China’s status as the third country, after the United States and the Soviet Union, to possess intercontinental nuclear strike capability. The missile has also served as the model for later Long March series of rockets.

Shortly after the parade, on November 1, Deng Xiaoping, the paramount leader, announced a military modernisation and efficiency drive that would see the PLA shedding around a million service personnel.

The “parade of the century” held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China was staged in Tiananmen Square and featured new units such as the Army Aviation Corps, Marine Corps and a special unit of the People’s Armed Police as well as reservists.

The event featured 42 pieces of equipment, all but two of which were making their debuts, including the JH-7 fighter-bomber and Dongfeng-31 long-range solid-fuel ballistic missiles – a sign the PLA was starting to shift towards hi-tech weaponry.

The year of 2009 saw two parades, one in April to mark the PLA Navy’s 60th anniversary and the once-a-decade National Day event.

April’s event at Fushan Bay in the Yellow Sea off the coast of Qingdao was China’s first multinational naval review and was attended by representatives from 29 countries.

The parade featured warships from 14 different countries, including Russia and the US, as well as 25 Chinese warships.

The event also saw the first public appearance of China’s nuclear-powered submarines, the Type 091 attack submarine and the ballistic missile-carrying Type 092.

The October 1 land parade was a smaller-scale event than the 1999 event, but featured more than 8,000 troops, more than 500 pieces of ground equipment and more than 150 aircraft.

The equipment on display included J-10 and J-11 fighter aircraft, the third-generation Type 99 battle tank, the ZBD-09 armoured infantry vehicle and the Changjian-10 land-based cruise missile.

The parade on September 3, 2015 marking the 70th anniversary of the victory over Japan in the second world war, was the first of its kind.

A total of 12,000 service personnel took part in the parade, which also featured both Nationalist and Communist veterans of the fight against Japan.

All the equipment featured was domestically produced, including the country’s first carrier-based jet, the J-15, as well as Type 99A battle tanks and KJ-500 airborne early warning and control aircraft.

Foreign military representatives, including representatives from Russia, Pakistan, Cuba and Egypt, were also invited to the parade.

President Xi Jinping also used the event to announce a major overhaul of the PLA, saying that 300,000 service personnel would be cut as part of the process of transforming the force into a modern military.

A parade to mark the PLA’s 90th anniversary was staged at the Zhurihe training base in Inner Mongolia, the largest in the country.

The event dispensed with the marching bands and pomp usually associated with such events in favour of a series of combat drills involving 12,000 troops.

Among the equipment that featured, pride of place went to the J-20, the first non-American stealth fighter to go into operation, and the Dongfeng 31-AG, a nuclear-capable ballistic missile capable of striking the whole of the United States or Europe.

Other equipment on show included YJ-12 anti-ship missiles, Hongqi-9B and 22 missiles, and Y-20 military transport aircraft.

The parade was the first to feature the PLA Strategic Support Force, which specialised in electronic warfare. Last year the unit was divided into three separate branches: the Aerospace Force, the Cyberspace Force and the Information Support Force.

The next two years saw two further naval parades. In April 2018, the biggest naval parade in the history of the People’s Republic was held in the South China Sea off the coast of Hainan island.

The event featured 48 ships, 76 warplanes and more than 10,000 sailors and other personnel. The ships taking part included the Liaoning, the country’s first aircraft carrier, and its latest nuclear-powered submarines, including the Type 093 and Type 094.

A year later, another parade took place off the coast of Qingdao to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the PLA Navy.

The event was attended by delegates from 61 countries, with 18 foreign warships taking part.

A further 32 Chinese vessels and 39 warplanes also took part in the event, which included the first public appearance of a Type 055 destroyer equipped with advanced anti-submarine warfare and air-defence systems.

Some 15,000 troops took part in this event, which showcased an array of advanced weaponry.

This included the Dongfeng-41, China’s most advanced land-based intercontinental ballistic missile which can carry multiple nuclear warheads, the H-6N long-range strategic bomber and the third-generation Type 15 light tank designed to cope with a variety of terrains.

The event also featured the PCL-191, a truck-mounted self-propelled multiple rocket launcher system, which has since been deployed to the Eastern Theatre Command area, which includes the Taiwan Strait.

September 3’s event to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II is expected to include another range of advanced weapons, such as fighter jets, drones, hypersonic missiles and other smart weapons.

Wu Zeke, deputy director general of the operations bureau of the Central Military Commission’s Joint Staff Department, has said the parade would display Chinese “system-based combat capabilities, new domain and new quality combat power, as well as strategic deterrent strength”.

It will also showcase the PLA’s new structure after the massive military reforms over the past decade, according to Wu.

Wednesday’s parade will be the sixth held during Xi’s term in office, putting him second only to Mao in the number he has presided over.

Observers also expect it to show how the Communist Party wants to forge a strong national identity by linking the wartime victory to its present military might.

Founded in 1903, South China Morning Post has been reporting on the parades in China throughout the decades. Below are some highlights from previous decades.

Chinese boy earns US$550 a month selling milk tea for fun; mum praises business acumen

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3322502/chinese-boy-earns-us550-month-selling-milk-tea-fun-mum-praises-business-acumen?utm_source=rss_feed

An 11-year-old Chinese boy who earned 4,000 yuan (US$550) a month selling milk tea at the night market during the summer holidays has been praised for his “business sense”.

Nicknamed Nuomi, the boy is a Primary Five student in central China’s Hunan province.

His mother, surnamed Li, said she let him work as a street vendor to reward him for coming first in class during last term’s final exam.

He got 100 points in English and mathematics and 98 in the Chinese exam.

Li said Nuomi had shown a keen interest in gourmet food and had a head for business.

To prepare his milk tea business, he studied how to make the product and spent two evenings checking out night markets in his home city of Changsha.

He also analysed shop locations and carefully selected the best spot to open his business.

His milk tea stall opened on July 17. It does business every day from 6:30 to 11pm.

Nuomi appeared to be as confident and proficient as a veteran shop owner when serving his customers.

He also pays his grandmother and a classmate to help out on occasion. Li said his business was so busy that he did not have time to eat dinner.

The classmate’s mother let her daughter work at the stall to gain some life experience.

Li said the stall could generate 4,000 yuan (US$a month. After deducting material costs and staff wages, Nuomi could earn 3,000 yuan a month.

The youngster’s stall only sold six cups of tea on the opening day, but it attracted attention after Li posted it online. Many people paid him a special visit to support his business.

She said the stall’s popularity boosted Nuomi’s confidence.

Li said they have agreed to do the business just for fun, and Nuomi would focus on his studies when school starts in September.

An all-round food lover, Nuomi spends hours making sushi, sandwiches and other dishes that even adults consider difficult to make.

“I can already see a future business tycoon in him,” said one online observer.

“I always told my son that he would have to be a street vendor in the future if he did not study hard enough, but he was only allowed to be a street vendor when he achieved the top grades,” said another.

“I admire that he has such an open-minded mum,” a third said.

How China could turn Paracel Islands into submarine kill zone in South China Sea

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3323577/how-china-could-turn-paracel-islands-submarine-kill-zone-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed

Four years after the USS Connecticut, one of the most advanced nuclear submarines in the US Navy, slammed into an uncharted seamount in the South China Sea, the site of that near-catastrophic grounding may now become a deadly minefield for future naval battles.

Chinese military scientists are proposing to transform the dangerous underwater terrain where the Connecticut crashed into a strategically engineered kill zone, packed with powerful mines designed to exploit the very same acoustic blind spots that made the area so treacherous for the American sub.

In a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Technical Acoustics, researchers from the People’s Liberation Army Dalian Naval Academy and Harbin Engineering University (HEU) reveal how the rugged seamounts around the Paracel Islands – dubbed “acoustic shadow zones” – can help intelligent mines evade detection and selectively target enemy vessels.

These sonar dead zones, mostly around the peaks and leeward slopes of submerged mountains where sound waves fracture, reflect or vanish entirely due to complex undersea topography, are ideal hiding spots for China’s underwater weapons that could challenge US dominance in undersea warfare, according to the researchers.

“Research on the site selection of underwater target deployment can help identify optimal locations on the sea floor, enhance the concealment of deployed assets and ensure they are difficult to detect,” wrote the team led by associate professor Ma Benjun with the HEU, which built China’s first submarine.

Planting sea mines precisely within these sonar dead zones “plays a crucial role in ensuring maritime security”, Ma and his colleagues added.

The Paracels have been occupied by Beijing since 1974, but are also claimed by Taipei and Hanoi.

Called the Xisha Islands by Beijing and Hoang Sa Islands by Vietnam, the chain of reefs and atolls about 300 nautical miles (555km) south of the Chinese mainland have long been a flashpoint in regional tensions.

Used by Chinese fishermen since the Tang and Song dynasties, the archipelago is now under a heavy Chinese military presence.

The PLA has built an airfield, deep water port, radar installations, and permanent garrisons, transforming it into a strategic hub for military operations in the South China Sea.

Yet the area remains fiercely contested. Vietnam maintains a presence on nearby islands, while the Philippines, Malaysia and others assert overlapping claims.

The United States, though officially neutral on sovereignty in the area, conducts regular freedom of navigation operations, often deploying submarines and surface vessels within close proximity of Chinese-held reefs.

The USS Connecticut incident underscored the risks. Travelling at high speed deep underwater, the Seawolf-class nuclear attack submarine struck an uncharted seamount on August 2, 2021, causing severe damage to its forward hull and forcing an emergency surfacing.

The US Navy later attributed the mishap to human error, relieving the commanding officer and senior staff. But details about the submarine’s mission and exact location are classified.

Chinese scientists argue that by placing long-endurance, AI-powered mines in the acoustic blind zones within the seamounts, PLA forces could create a covert defensive network.

These are no ordinary sea mines. Described in the study as large rigid round bodies measuring two metres (6.5 feet) wide and over a metre thick, they are designed to lie inert on the seabed for a long time, disguised by stealth coatings and terrain mimicry.

Equipped with arrays of acoustic, magnetic and optical sensors, these smart weapons can autonomously identify vessels by their unique sound signatures and only engage when pre-approved targets – such as US submarines or carrier strike groups – pass within lethal range, according to some previous research on these weapons.

When planted in a sonar blind spot, these mines have an average of nearly half the chance of fooling active detectors. In some more shadowy areas, the chance can reach as high as 80 per cent, according to the new study.

The PLA’s research draws on high-resolution bathymetric maps derived from China’s own deep-sea sonar surveys, as well as real-time oceanographic data – temperature, salinity, current profiles – collected by buoys and research vessels. The data has been cross-validated and deemed reliable enough to model acoustic propagation across seasons and sea states.

If such a system proves effective, it could alter the calculus of undersea dominance – a domain long controlled by the United States through its fleet of ultra-quiet nuclear submarines, including the Seawolf and Virginia-class subs.

These vessels, with their anechoic tile coatings, magnetic suspension propulsion systems and advanced acoustic dampening, can glide through the ocean almost undetected, with noise levels nearly identical to the background sound in the ocean.

But China is rapidly scaling up its broader anti-submarine warfare (ASW) modernisation.

This includes an “underwater BeiDou” network of seabed sonar arrays, quantum gravity gradiometers to detect submarine-induced mass anomalies, and swarms of uncrewed underwater vehicles like the Haiyi “sea wing” series.

These drones, operating in coordinated packs, can blanket vast areas of ocean, sharing data via artificial intelligence algorithms trained to distinguish submarine signatures from background noise.

Satellites monitor surface wakes, airborne platforms like the Y-8Q anti-submarine aircraft drop sonobuoys and magnetic anomaly detectors.

The entire system, fused through secure communications and machine learning, aims to shift ASW from passive defence to “active hunting”, according to some Chinese military experts.

---

Xi to Modi: the Chinese ‘dragon’ and the Indian ‘elephant’ need to be good friends

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3323804/xi-modi-chinese-dragon-and-indian-elephant-need-be-good-friends?utm_source=rss_feed

The world’s two most populous countries need to be friends, Chinese President Xi Jinping told visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.

Meeting on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, Xi told Modi that the two countries could be good neighbours and play a key part in the Global South, according to footage posted online.

“China and India are two of the most ‘civilisational’ countries. We are the world’s two most populous countries and part of the Global South … It is vital to be friends, a good neighbour, and [for] the ‘dragon’ and the ‘elephant’ to come together,” Xi said in opening remarks.

In opening remarks posted on social media, Modi, who is on his first trip to China in seven years, said both countries had been moving in a positive direction since last year.

“We are committed to taking our relations forward on the basis of mutual trust, respect and sensitivity,” he said.

“After the disengagement on the border, an atmosphere of peace and stability has been created.”

The discussions took place at around noon and lasted nearly an hour.

Ties between the two countries nosedived after a deadly border clash in 2020, but Beijing and New Delhi have sought to mend fences in the past year, especially as both face stiff US tariffs.

The talks between Xi and Modi are not expected to resolve many major disputes, but the presence of the Indian prime minister in the northern port city is a sign of a strategic rethink to deal with geopolitical vulnerabilities.

Nevertheless, Modi will not join Xi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Beijing for a military parade on Wednesday.

Washington has spent years courting New Delhi as a counterweight to Beijing, but those efforts have been undermined this year by the White House’s decision to impose 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods.

The tariffs are meant to punish India for buying Russian oil but Delhi has shown little sign of budging on the purchase, vowing to protect its national interests and reaching out to other trading partners.

Modi’s stop in China follows talks in Japan, where he and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba signed an economic security initiative for their countries to work together on semiconductors, artificial intelligence, critical minerals, clean energy and pharmaceuticals.

Tokyo also pledged US$67 billion in new investment in India over the next decade and to transfer new Shinkansen “E10 series” high-speed train technology.

In addition, the leaders renewed a 2008 security declaration aimed at keeping the Indo-Pacific free from regional threats, focusing on the management of technology on emerging fronts such as space and cybersecurity.

Chinese officials urge family to cremate sick man lying on floor, shocking mainland public

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3323303/chinese-officials-urge-family-cremate-sick-man-lying-floor-shocking-mainland-public?utm_source=rss_feed

A group of public servants in China have come under fire for urging a rural family to cremate their relative while he was still alive and in earshot.

On August 19, a villager in eastern China’s Anhui province posted a video exposing local government officials for promoting cremation while an elderly member of a family was lying sick and dying.

It is a local custom to place a dying person on the floor.

The officials told the family about the perks of cremation, including their policy of providing such services for free, while their elderly relative was awake and listening.

The video sparked public outrage.

“It is very inappropriate to advertise cremation at such a time. The family was quite polite as they only quarrelled verbally with the officials instead of fighting,” an online observer said.

Traditionally, talking about death is taboo in China, as it is believed to bring bad luck and the inevitability closer.

The local government issued an apology the next day, saying that its staff were publicising their services throughout the village and did not target the family.

However, some people refused to accept the explanation.

China has been dedicated to funeral and burial reforms since issuing the country’s first legislation related to such services in 1985.

Many countryside public servants have been assigned to persuade people who hold the traditional belief that “to be buried is to rest in peace” to opt for cremation, which is considered ecological and space-saving.

Some online observers said that their local government would “go after” people immediately after a member of their family dies to ensure they are cremated.

Some said their families were allowed to put the ashes into coffins before burial.

“I wonder how that is different from traditional burials,” one online viewer said.

According to official data, China’s cremation rate increased from the earliest record of 26.2 per cent in 1986 to 58.8 per cent in 2012.

China has also been vigorously promoting more ecological burials such as tree and sea burials in urban areas, offering subsidies to people who opt for such methods.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, 195,000 eco-burials were made in 2014, a 67 per cent increase on 2019.

Another online observer expressed understanding for the government staff.

“The policy discourages traditional burials, so many villagers secretly bury their dead at night. The village cadres would be fined in such cases,” the person said.

---

Chinese tourists’ love affair with Paris deepens as visits surge 15%

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3323654/chinese-tourists-love-affair-paris-deepens-visits-surge-15?utm_source=rss_feed

Many Chinese tourists arriving in Paris in recent weeks have been surprised by the same thing: the quiet. August is the traditional holiday month in France, when most Parisians flee the capital for sunny beaches in the south or exotic destinations abroad.

“The French have all left, some neighbourhoods have barely any people,” one user wrote on the Chinese social platform RedNote. Others posted photos of deserted boulevards near Parc Monceau and the Musée d’Orsay.

But that has not stopped Chinese travellers from flocking to Paris in ever greater numbers this summer, as local tourism authorities predicted a 15 per cent year-on-year increase for June, July and August.

Of the top 10 sources of visitors to the French capital, the jump in visits from China was surpassed only by Canada, which saw a 31 per cent surge compared with 2024, according to data published by Choose Paris Region, the area’s official international outreach agency, on Thursday.

About 100,000 Chinese nationals are expected to tour Paris and the surrounding Île-de-France region, where top attractions such as the Palace of Versailles and Disneyland Paris are located, according to the agency.

The double-digit increase is all the more impressive given that Paris hosted the Olympic Games in the summer of 2024, which triggered a strong rebound in Chinese tourism following a plummet in visits during the pandemic.

China is the ninth-largest source of visitors to the capital region overall, and the biggest of any nation whose citizens require a visa to visit France. Chinese tourists also tend to be big spenders, Choose Paris Region said.

Tourists from China will contribute €447 million (US$522 million) to the Parisian economy in 2025, according to estimates by local authorities. Each Chinese tourist in Paris spends €445 per day on average, second only to Emiratis and even more than Americans, according to a July report by Choose Paris Region and the Île-de-France Chamber of Commerce.

Galeries Lafayette, the flagship luxury department store in the French capital and a must-visit for many Chinese travellers, saw continued growth in Chinese tourist footfall this summer, a spokesperson told the Post.

Authorities expect this strong growth to continue for the rest of the year, with Chinese air bookings to the greater Paris region set to increase by 8 per cent year on year, once again second only to Canada, according to Choose Paris Region.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China and France should continue to encourage bilateral tourism during his visit to Paris in July.

But obstacles remain, most notably a lack of flight connections between China and France. Any recovery has been further complicated by France’s decision to suspend its airline agreement with China, citing the cost advantage Chinese airlines enjoy due to Russia closing its airspace to French carriers amid the war in Ukraine.

---

At SCO summit, Xi Jinping frames China as a source of certainty

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3323803/sco-summit-chance-china-assert-itself-stable-world-power-peace?utm_source=rss_feed

As Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomes a host of world leaders for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, he is delivering one overarching message – that China is a stable power that will protect peace and champion the developing world.

Xi launched a flurry of Chinese diplomacy in the northern city of Tianjin on Saturday by meeting five state leaders and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres ahead of Sunday’s start to the SCO’s two-day summit.

He told Guterres that China was a “source of stability and certainty” amid global changes and that “history teaches that multilateralism, solidarity and cooperation are the right way to address global challenges”.

Xi also called for joint efforts to “revitalise the authority and vitality” of the United Nations to become the central platform for addressing global affairs.

Some 30 world leaders and heads of international organisations are expected to show up for the SCO summit – an event China’s foreign ministry is billing as the “largest in SCO history” and “one of the most important activities this year for China’s head-of-state diplomacy and home-ground diplomacy”.

Analysts said the world would be watching to see how Beijing tried to position itself as a global power at a time of rising geopolitical tensions.

In his welcome to Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Saturday, the Chinese leader said the two countries should make “greater contributions to maintaining world peace and stability” and promote global development and prosperity.

China and Egypt, he said, should “shoulder their historic mission and responsibilities as major countries of the Global South, and jointly oppose unilateralism and bullying acts”.

Beijing has repeatedly called for countries – particularly those from the Global South – to stand up against unilateral and protectionist measures, in apparent reference to US President Donald Trump’s isolationism and his sweeping tariff wars on countries.

Throughout it all, Beijing is seeking to present itself as a key leader of the developing world.

That message is expected to be echoed on Wednesday when the Chinese capital will be the backdrop for a massive military parade commemorating the end of World War II, an event expected to be attended by many of the leaders from the summit.

In Tianjin, Xi is expected to deliver keynote speeches and suggest ways for the SCO to “constructively safeguard the post-war international order and improve the global governance system”.

The member states will also adopt a series of documents to deepen security, economic and cultural cooperation, according to an earlier report.

The grouping was formed in 2001 as a Eurasian security bloc but it has since expanded to include other areas such as economics and trade. According to the Chinese foreign ministry, it brings together 26 countries across Asia, Europe and Africa, including its dialogue partners.

Indonesia protests: Prabowo cancels China trip, Beijing issues security warning

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3323800/indonesia-protests-prabowo-cancels-china-trip-beijing-issues-security-warning?utm_source=rss_feed

The Chinese embassy in Jakarta warned Chinese citizens in Indonesia to avoid crowds on the weekend as an outbreak of protests forced the Indonesian president to cancel his trip to China.

“[Citizens and agencies should] improve security precautions, closely monitor local developments, minimise non-essential outings, steer clear of protest crowds and areas, and avoid visiting crowded locations,” the embassy said in a social media post on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Indonesian State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi said “domestic dynamics” had prompted President Prabowo Subianto to cancel his planned trip.

Prasetyo, who is also the presidential spokesman, said Prabowo wanted to “monitor the situation directly, as well as to lead and find the best solution”.

“Therefore, the president apologises to the Chinese government that he could not attend the invitation,” the minister said in a video.

Prabowo had originally planned to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin on Sunday and Monday, and then the Victory Day military parade in Beijing on Wednesday.

Protests have been raging across several Indonesian cities for days, fuelled by anger over pay rises for parliamentarians as well as government corruption.

The situation escalated after a police vehicle hit and killed a 21-year-old motorcycle taxi driver while dispersing demonstrators outside Jakarta’s parliamentary complex on Thursday evening.

On Friday, Prabowo called for calm and trust in the government, pledging a “thorough and transparent” investigation into the driver’s death.

The next day, social media platform TikTok said it would suspend live-streaming services in Indonesia for several days.

Chinese man discovers via DNA test that both sons are not his after fighting with 1 of them

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3323725/chinese-man-discovers-dna-test-both-sons-are-not-his-after-fighting-1-them?utm_source=rss_feed

In eastern China, a shocking incident unfolded when a man learned through a DNA test that neither of his two sons was his biological child, following an attack by one of them.

Jiang Hongtao, 45, from Shandong province, took his ex-wife to court, demanding a refund of 300,000 yuan (US$42,000) for child support and education fees.

According to mainland media Jimu News, Jiang married his wife in 2002, and their first son was born two years later, with a second son following in 2014. However, by 2022, frequent absences from his wife led to their divorce.

In the settlement, all property went to his ex-wife, leaving Jiang with only a car. Last September, after returning home with his new wife, Jiang’s ex-wife and two sons turned up, demanding his property.

During a dispute over living expenses, Jiang’s eldest son, Jiang Runze, pushed him and choked him, shouting: “You are not my father,” which raised Jiang’s suspicions.

He subsequently took Runze’s toothbrush for a DNA test, revealing no biological connection, and later discovered that his second son was also not his biological child. Jiang claimed Runze was fathered by the village secretary, while his second son was his cousin’s child.

Devastated, he remarked: “My ex-wife has caused tremendous harm to me.”

Jiang’s parents echoed his feelings, stating: “The grandsons we have raised for over 20 years are not biological. Our hearts are broken.”

In court, Jiang sought 100,000 yuan (US$14,000) in emotional damages and a refund for child support and education fees. However, Runze challenged the paternity test’s legitimacy and claimed manipulation by Jiang’s current wife.

Jiang’s ex-wife only acknowledged compensation for emotional damages per local standards and rejected the child support claim, also seeking to annul their divorce agreement.

The court confirmed that neither son is biologically related to Jiang, but a ruling has not yet been disclosed. Jiang later revealed that his cousin’s wife had sued his ex-wife and cousin for infidelity.

On August 24, Runze posted a video stating the court ruled in Jiang’s favour, and that he, his brother, and mother had severed ties with Jiang’s family. He conveyed his best wishes to Jiang and his current wife, hoping they would treat his grandparents well.

This incident has drawn widespread attention on mainland social media, with related posts receiving over 30 million views.

One observer remarked: “Jiang is the victim. He raised two sons who were not his for 22 years, and in the end, one of them still wanted his money.”

Another added: “I support Jiang in seeking justice. The one most to blame is the unfaithful ex-wife.”

80 years on, Southeast Asia’s Chinese diaspora remember wartime sacrifices

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3323782/80-years-southeast-asias-chinese-diaspora-remember-wartime-sacrifices?utm_source=rss_feed

In the struggle to keep the Chinese resistance movement supplied against the Japanese invasion, a dangerous, winding route was carved through the jungles and hills of eastern Myanmar into Yunnan province.

The Burma Road, a 1,200km-long lifeline as it became known, allowed goods to be shipped from Yangon (then Rangoon) and driven across the country into the interior of China, while its ports were blockaded by Japanese ships.

But the convoys needed drivers, mechanics and guides to make the treacherous journey through the slippery mountainous terrain, a route made more perilous by the Japanese bombers overhead.

And so Tan Kah Kee, a Fujian-born but Singapore-based businessman, recruited them – handfuls at first, then hundreds, as part of an extraordinary resistance effort by Southeast Asia’s Chinese diaspora to support the fight against Japan back home.

But from Malaysia to the Philippines, the heroics of the volunteer fighters, medical professionals, fundraisers and community organisers would also help knit Chinese migrants – often newcomers who moved for short-term work – into the new national stories of their adopted countries.

On Wednesday, China will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, giving a chance for those diaspora stories of heroism, suffering and resistance to be retold.

Tan Kah Kee raised vast sums across Southeast Asia from the Chinese migrant community – known as huaqiao – who came from all walks of life to donate to the Chinese war effort back home through the Singapore China Relief Fund.

“He had this in-depth passion of wanting to improve the lot of the Chinese,” his granddaughter Peggy Tan, 75, told This Week in Asia.

“When his business empire collapsed during the depression years, he dropped everything and concentrated on helping the motherland fight off the Japanese. He took it upon himself to then raise funds, and he was a good organiser, and he was a very, very eloquent speaker,” she said.

Her book, Descendants of Tan Kah Kee and Their Stories, was published last year.

In 1939, Tan Kah Kee recruited more than 3,200 members of the Nanqiao Jigong – Chinese truck drivers and mechanics from Nanyang – to transport fuel, machine parts and military equipment over the notorious Burma Road, a rough, narrow and winding mountainous passage stretching 1,200km between Burma (now Myanmar) and the border of Yunnan.

Nanyang referred to the maritime region south of China – the coastal strips of mainland Southeast Asia including Malaysia, Singapore and most of the islands of the Philippines and Indonesia.

The Burma Road was the only land route for wartime supplies into China and, as such, was relentlessly bombed by Japanese planes to cut off the supply line.

A third of those recruited were killed by either Japanese bombing, fatal accidents on the dangerous road or illnesses like dysentery.

About 1,000 of the volunteers returned home, with the survivors staying behind in the Yunnan border area.

When the Japanese invaded Singapore in 1942, Tan fled Singapore without telling his family where he would go, with a price on his head.

“He had to move from station to station, from house to house, all the way making his way southwards to Java simply because the Chinese population in Java was the biggest, and he could melt into that population and wouldn’t be singled out easily,” Peggy Tan said.

After the war, her grandfather returned to Singapore and later moved to China, where he was feted as a hero. He died in Beijing in 1961, aged 86.

In Malaysia, then called Malaya – under British colonial rule – three years and eight months of Japanese occupation brought a terrible toll.

More than 200,000 civilians perished during the war, many of them of Chinese origin, at the hands of the Japanese occupying force.

Malaya had one of the largest populations of overseas Chinese – also known as Nanyang Chinese – at over 2 million people at the outbreak of war in 1941, many of whom were brought in by the British to work in tin mines.

While not native to the land, historian Eddin Khoo said the Chinese community banded together to go against the Japanese invaders.

“The Chinese collectivised and formed the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army [MPAJA], the sole armed resistance to the Japanese, which was assisted by the British,” Khoo said.

While the Japanese army was brutal towards all communities, the Chinese fared worse due to entrenched animosity between the nations.

Many ethnic Chinese families in present-day Malaysia have anecdotes of Japanese army brutality, torture and forced labour.

Khoo said that among the Chinese, many were forced to betray each other to free their family members from Japanese detention. Women, especially, had been forced into becoming “comfort women” at military brothels.

“Sometimes people volunteered to be informants so that they’d save their sisters and their mothers and so on,” Khoo said. “It is a complicated and tragic situation.”

At his independent bookstore Gerakbudaya in Petaling Jaya, Chong Ton Sin, 77, said that while he was born after the war, anti-Japanese sentiment coloured his life “until today”.

“Even now, Malaysian Chinese are still not happy with what Japan did during the war … many are still very angry,” Chong said, tapping his fingers on the table to stress his message.

“If you look at the Japanese people today, it’s hard to conceive that they were able to commit such atrocities, but we Chinese call them ‘ghosts’, because they were evil.”

Chong, however, said the experience of fighting the Japanese in Malaya created a new consciousness among the Chinese community, one that gradually evolved into a new identity as Malaysians.

“For many, they stopped thinking in terms of Chineseness and instead think about their place in this country,” Chong said.

Resistance against Japanese occupation also flared across other parts of Southeast Asia.

By the time the Sino-Japanese war broke out in China in July 1937, there was a long-established ethnic Chinese community in the then US-controlled Philippines that had sympathised with the war efforts in China.

“The local community was mobilised to send aid to China, launch propaganda campaigns, organise the National Salvation Movement and the Boycott Japanese Goods Movement,” said Teresita Ang See, activist and co-founder of Kaisa Para Sa Kaunlaran, a non-governmental organisation that advocates for the integration of Chinese-Filipinos into Philippine society.

Waves of migration brought in merchants from China during the 19th and 20th centuries, even when the US extended its Chinese exclusion law to the Philippines, which regulated the arrival of migrants into the country.

Many of these migrants, who came as traders or labourers, “maintained a strong sense of orientation towards China, including participation in anti-Japanese activities”, anthropologist Michael Tan wrote.

“It was kind of a ‘here it comes again’ feeling for them. They were well aware of the earlier start of World War II in China and Indochina in 1937, before Pearl Harbour happened in 1941. So to see that same suffering ‘follow them’, so to speak, to their new home, there was a collective sense of an existential threat,” Reynard Hing, president of Kaisa Para Sa Kaunlaran, told This Week in Asia.

Hing’s maternal grandfather, Cheng Kiat Giam, migrated to the Philippines at the end of the Qing dynasty and settled in Manila, where he entered the glassmaking business.

“Like many immigrant Chinese families, my grandfather had considered the Philippines as his second home after escaping the chaos at the end of the Qing dynasty in China,” Hing told This Week in Asia.

“He had sufficiently integrated to the point that he not only spoke Filipino, but also Spanish and did business within and outside Chinese circles. He had a glass factory in Makati, and hearing from relatives back in China, he – like many – knew what would happen if the Japanese were to take over the Philippines.”

Cheng contributed to fundraising efforts for the war chest in China and the local militias active in resisting the Japanese occupation in the Philippines, Hing said.

But the kempeitai, Japan’s feared imperial military police, caught wind of Cheng’s activities, forcing him and his family to go into hiding in Camarines Sur province south of Manila, leaving behind his eldest son to tend to the business in Manila.

“When the Japanese came and couldn’t find grandpa, they killed [his son] instead and dumped him in a mass grave, so the family wasn’t even able to find the corpse later on,” Hing said.

Other Chinese individuals joined local guerilla groups. While some had joined Filipino movements in fighting a common Filipino enemy, others had formed their own resistance forces, which became “the backbone of the Chinese leftist resistance force”, Ang See wrote.

There were about six major guerilla groups in the Philippines that fought against the Japanese occupation. The Wha Chi group was one of the largest and most active among the Chinese resistance forces, with units operating outside the cities.

By the end of the war, the Wha Chi had managed to attract 700 young recruits in total, some of whom trained and fought in the mountains, while others conducted military intelligence and published propaganda materials on the war efforts.

“My father came to the Philippines in 1936 at the age of 16. Like many other Chinese at that time, they came to the country in the hope of having a better life … it so happened they were caught up with the Pacific War,” Aquino Lee, president of the Wha Chi Descendants Association, told This Week in Asia.

Lee’s father, Lee Lian Pao, had previously been active in initial efforts to boycott Japanese goods coming into the country, owing his beliefs to deep-rooted anti-Japanese sentiment from his youth in China.

He joined the Wha Chi at 21, working in underground intelligence efforts and logistics to support the guerillas’ combat forces in the mountains.

“Even when he was a young boy in China, China had already been under siege by Japan, so that kind of sentiment got built up … when the opportunity came, he and other young men wanted to fight back. They didn’t want to live under that kind of condition,” Lee said.

Now in its 83rd year, the Wha Chi Descendants Association continues to honour the efforts of the guerillas who risked and sacrificed their lives during the war.

“Not just the Wha Chi, but all the sacrifices of our elders should be remembered. It’s their sacrifices that paved the way to peace,” Lee said.

---

Could remembering shared World War II history be the key to better China-US ties?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3323755/could-remembering-shared-world-war-ii-history-be-key-better-china-us-ties?utm_source=rss_feed

Ahead of the 80th anniversary of Victory Day, marking the end of the Sino-Japanese war and the global fight against fascism, we look at the profound changes of the post-war period and how they continue to affect China’s place in the world. Part four of this series examines how the history of Sino-American cooperation has been extolled as a potential formula for better bilateral ties from the ground up.

Behind the familiar history of World War II lies a forgotten front, lined with unsung heroes in the battlefields of China whose stories have largely gone untold.

Their ranks include American volunteer pilots who fought against Japan in China’s skies, as well as drivers and mechanics from Southeast Asia – mostly of Chinese descent but also Malaysian, Indonesian, Indian and Burmese – who helped to build airports and transported huge amounts of war materials to China.

There were also villagers in eastern China who sought to keep American airmen safe and risked their lives amid heavy bombing by the Japanese army.

On the 80th anniversary of its WWII victory, China is expected to draw on this history of wartime solidarity to promote people-to-people exchange, a high priority on Beijing’s agenda, to shape improved foreign relations for future generations.

Fifty representatives or surviving family members of those who contributed to China’s efforts in World War II have been invited to attend the commemoration, according to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including from Russia, the United States, Britain, France and Canada.

Chinese leaders and diplomats in recent months have stressed the significance of wartime collaboration as they strive for positive engagement around the world.

Ahead of a state visit to Malaysia in April, Chinese President Xi Jinping publicly hailed the contributions of the Nanyang volunteer mechanics and drivers, a group of more than 3,000 trained drivers and professional technicians.

The mostly overseas Chinese based in Southeast Asia “at a critical moment in the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression rushed to Yunnan [province] to help open up the vital lifeline of the Burma Road”, Xi said in an article.

According to official figures, between 1939 and 1942, these unsung heroes from Southeast Asia successfully delivered more than 450,000 tonnes – or 90 percent of China’s international aid during the war – from Burma, now Myanmar, to China. Eventually, Japan discovered the mission, overran it and put an end to the lifeline.

More than 1,000 Nanyang volunteers died because of malaria, Japanese bombing and extreme road conditions, while those who stayed in China were persecuted during the tumultuous Cultural Revolution because of their efforts supporting the Kuomintang, then a rival to the Communists.

“As we reflect on the past and look to the future, China and Malaysia need to work together to add new impetus to our friendship that has sailed all the way down the river of history, and steer this ship steadily into the future,” Xi wrote.

In keeping with Beijing’s effort to connect shared history to modern cooperation, Dai Bing, China’s ambassador to South Korea, posted a video earlier this month about the Republic of Korea’s government-in-exile that China hosted in Chongqing from 1940 to 1945 during the fight against Japanese aggression.

“History saw a great number of Korean independence activists travel all the way to China and join the Chinese people in fighting against invasion and pursuing national liberation,” Dai wrote on social media.

“We hope that the peoples of both countries will look back at the touching history from over 80 years ago … and draw strength from the history to move our relations forward.”

This week’s military parade comes as Beijing ramps up efforts to improve people-to-people exchange, which plunged during the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of South Korean students in China, for instance, dropped sharply by 78 per cent in 2023 to 15,857 from a peak of 73,240 in 2017. For decades, South Korea had been the largest source of foreign students in China.

The reduction is largely attributed to China’s economic slowdown and deteriorating public sentiment towards China in South Korea.

Nicholas Burns, the previous US ambassador to China, said the number of American students in China rebounded to about 880 in 2024 following the country’s reopening from its pandemic lockdown.

According to Open Doors, which tracks the number of US students abroad, there were 211 American students in mainland China in 2021-2022 – a far cry from the 11,639 studying in 2018-2019.

The tepid post-pandemic showing came despite an ambitious initiative announced by Xi a year earlier, aiming for China to host 50,000 US students for study and exchange programmes over the next five years. By comparison, the total number of American students in China in 2014 exceeded 24,000.

Observers have described the world’s geopolitical landscape as vastly different compared with a decade ago.

At that time, Sino-American ties were largely stable, with then US president Barack Obama making a state visit to China in November 2014.

And while the visit took place as Washington pivoted to Asia to focus on diplomacy and trade in the region, the two sides agreed to establish bilateral dialogues on a number of contentious issues spanning trade and military matters.

The US and China also agreed on a reciprocal policy of 10-year visa issuances for tourists and businessmen to encourage people-to-people exchange.

To lay the groundwork for Xi’s first state visit to the US, then national security adviser Susan Rice met the Chinese leader in Beijing in August 2015. Rice relayed the message that Obama “spoke highly of the tremendous contributions made by the Chinese people during [World War II] and the profound friendship forged between the US and China”, according to Beijing’s read-out.

Days later, Xi presided over an enormous military parade from the Tiananmen Square rostrum, flanked by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Park Geun-hye, then president of South Korea, a US treaty ally.

John Delury, a historian of modern China and US-China relations expert, said this year’s commemoration could provide an opportunity for Beijing to show regional leadership and celebrate its role during a turning point in world history.

A decade ago, the US was widely regarded as the engine driving the post-war global order. Today, however, US President Donald Trump’s “America first” vision has broken with norms and conventions that used to govern Washington’s trade relations, use of military force and its engagement with partners and allies.

“The United States doesn’t know any more what it’s doing and where it’s going, and the kind of traditional understanding that was really bipartisan in the United States, in Washington, about American leadership is [now] … crumbling,” said Delury, formerly a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul.

Amid unprecedented tensions with the US, China has increasingly emphasised the history of military collaboration with America to improve strained ties.

At a recent event in Washington, Chinese ambassador Xie Feng recounted how Chinese villagers in 1942 rescued American pilots from the Doolittle Raid, the US’ first-ever air attack on Japanese soil.

Among the 80 airmen who crash-landed or bailed out of their planes, 64 were rescued by Chinese civilians and soldiers who used everything from stretchers, jampans and doolees to trucks and trains to move the men from war zones to safety.

But their heroism proved costly. In the ensuing months of retaliation, some 250,000 people in China’s eastern and central Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces were killed in Japanese air attacks. Japan also retaliated with massacres in at least three villages, while those who helped the Doolittle raiders were tortured and killed.

“Forged in blood and fire, the friendship between the Chinese and American people remains evergreen, an enduring wellspring for the growth of Sino-US relations,” Xie said during the event, according to a Chinese transcript.

“It constantly reminds us that our two nations should be partners and friends, achieving mutual success and benefiting the world. It reminds us to honour the profound bond formed during the years of war, to stay committed to peaceful coexistence and to never waver in our pursuit of win-win cooperation.”

However, to many younger Americans, World War II history, particularly as it relates to what happened in Asia, is a distant or unknown period, even though more than 121,000 American military personnel were deployed to China in the 1940s.

“To a lot of young Americans there’s not as much awareness of this history as there is on the Chinese side, and I don’t know if this would be enough to draw the attention of American audiences,” said historian Zach Fredman at Duke Kunshan University.

By playing up wartime collaboration, Beijing was trying to demonstrate its interest in boosting people-to-people exchange, even though relations have become worse over the last 10 years “and could be a lot worse”, Fredman said.

“In China, this is something that’s being done more for domestic audiences, but also, I think, to signal that there’s still an interest in this kind of people-to-people exchange, at least over something that’s seen as unambiguously positive, like the Flying Tigers.”

For a brief time, the Flying Tigers were portrayed as air pirates in China, even though the collection of American military pilots came together to help fight Japan’s invasion of China.

The group’s leader, Claire Lee Chennault, was denounced as “a flying burglar” and was later known as a vocal opponent of communism in Asia.

Now, however, the spirit of the Flying Tigers is often cited as a demonstration of faith in cooperation despite political differences.

Zheng Wang of Seton Hall University described national memory as selective and “shaped by current politics and geopolitical considerations”.

Still, commemorative events like the coming large-scale military parade in Beijing could create “moments of connection”, especially at a people-to-people level, said Wang, who is director of the university’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.

“History, when presented with sincerity, can serve as a bridge, even amid broader political tensions,” he said. “The shared sacrifices of the World War II era remain one of the few ‘good memories’ between Chinese and American societies.”

The South China Morning Post reported earlier that the descendants of the Flying Tigers, including Chennault’s, were invited to this year’s war commemoration activities in Beijing.

Jeffrey Greene, chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, said that more young people in the US and China should be told about the Flying Tigers and the history of Sino-American cooperation.

In 2022, the Las Vegas-based foundation launched a programme to educate young people in both countries about their shared aviation history with the hope of fostering future cooperation.

Chinese media heavily covered the programme after Xi wrote to Greene and two members of the Flying Tigers, Harry Moyer and Mel McMullen, in 2023.

In his letter, Xi spoke of “the hope and foundation of China-US relations” laying in the future of young people.

To date, nearly 100 high schools and universities in China and 20 in the US have joined the programme with the support of local governments.

“It opens up doors if we remember history,” said Greene, recalling the saying that those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.

“We don’t want to repeat it,” he added. “We want to build forward.”