Before Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, which dragged the US into WWII, Chinese people alone took on 94 percent of the Japanese forces deployed overseas in 1938 and 78 percent in 1940. More than 45 million Chinese people participated in the enduring resistance, which involved a total of about 1.7 billion people from 61 countries.

Thanks to the Chinese people, the Japanese troops were not able to proceed further to attack the eastern part of the Soviet Union, or make inroads into India, Australia and perhaps the Middle East, as the then US president Franklin D. Roosevelt feared in a worst scenario. On the other hand, Japan's failure to colonize China boosted the morale of anti-fascist fighters across the globe, and united them into a massive force.

Therefore, China has every reason to celebrate the hard-won victory against fascism. Western leaders used Russia's involvement in the Ukraine crisis as an excuse to boycott Moscow's Victory Day parade in May. Now, they refuse to attend Beijing's commemorative events, too, which is unacceptable. By holding a military parade on a day other than the National Day, China, as a rising power, aims to send a message that it is ready to relinquish its "victimhood". Apart from reminding postwar generations in China and Japan of the hard-fought peace and the importance of maintaining it, the commemorative events in Beijing are expected to show China's resolve to safeguard the postwar world order and regional stability, instead of undermining them.

In his recent book, Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945, Rana Mitter, professor of history at Oxford University, says China's role has been overlooked in Western narratives and calls for its fairer evaluation to help people heed the lessons of history and "avoid repeating the same mistakes".

This is exactly why Beijing and Seoul seek a sincere apology from Japanese leaders. The dangerous right-leaning tendency of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, reflected in the passage of two new security bills, has left a ticking time bomb in East Asia. There is no reason to politicize the commemorative events in Beijing, because that would send out the wrong signal that the West does not welcome the rise of China and does not want Japan to express remorse for its past and learn the lessons of history.

The author is a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China.