September 3, 2025, marks the 80th anniversary of the Republic of China’s victory in the War of Resistance against Japan. Eighty years ago, under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, Chairman of the National Government and leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), the Chinese people endured fourteen years of bloody struggle and finally achieved victory. The Republic of China’s armed forces paid a heavy price: about three million soldiers perished, including more than 200 generals. Before the war, the National Revolutionary Army fielded over 1.7 million regular troops; by the final years of the war, total mobilization reached nearly 5 million. By contrast, the Communist forces numbered only about 50,000 in 1937, but opportunistically expanded to over 1.2 million by the war’s end, having used the conflict to build strength.
Communist Historical Revisionism: False Narratives of “Independence”
The truth of history stands in stark contrast to the propaganda of today’s Beijing regime. The Communist authorities will hold a grand military parade, once again promoting the myth that Mao Zedong’s Communist forces were the “mainstay” of the anti-Japanese struggle. In reality, the Communists avoided pitched battles with the Japanese, focused on guerrilla tactics, and often clashed with the Kuomintang’s forces. At times, they even maintained tacit understandings with the Japanese, preferring to weaken the National Government rather than confront Tokyo’s armies.
The Communists exploited the war to consolidate power and prepare for civil war. After 1945, Soviet support and captured Japanese weaponry further expanded their strength. Finally, in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party illegally declared “independence of the mainland,” seizing China’s heartland and plunging hundreds of millions of Chinese into totalitarian rule. Historically, there has never been any “Taiwan independence.” The only true separatists were the Communists themselves. If China curses those who divide the country, then the Communists are cursing themselves.
From Victory to Constitutional Democracy
Yet, in the short peace after the war, the Republic of China demonstrated Asia’s earliest experiment with constitutional democracy. In 1946, a National Constituent Assembly was convened; in 1948, the first presidential election was held, with Chiang Kai-shek elected as the first postwar president. At that time, 400 million Chinese lived under the largest democratic republic in Asia. Indeed, ever since its founding in 1912, the Republic of China had been Asia’s first democratic republic. This tradition continues today in the Republic of China on Taiwan.
Reform, Confucian Tradition, and Early Modernization
Looking further back, after the Opium War in 1840, China was the first in Asia to open its doors to foreign trade and capital, and one of the earliest to introduce Western-style higher education (the Imperial University of Peking, established in 1898, predated many regional institutions). Due to corruption, foreign invasions, and warlordism, reforms faltered, while Japan’s Meiji Restoration of 1871 propelled it to great-power status. But China’s early reforms should not be ignored. They reflected the Confucian tradition of adaptability and synthesis—a tradition later undermined by the Soviet-backed Communists, whose role in the two civil wars and in the war of resistance was destructive rather than constructive.
International Recognition and ROC Legitimacy
It was the Republic of China, not the Communists, that won the War of Resistance. Through perseverance, the ROC earned international respect and was seated as a founding member and permanent member of the UN Security Council. This proves that the Chinese people are not a nation of “slaves,” as some Western scholars—who read only secondhand English-language sources without understanding Chinese—arrogantly assert. Such claims are nothing more than racism and cultural chauvinism.
From Taiwan to Full Democratization: The Republic of China Today
After the civil war, the Republic of China retreated to Taiwan. Martial law, imposed in 1949, was primarily a defense against Communist subversion, yet local elections continued. In 1987, President Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law, affirming that “no party can rule forever.” In 1992, parliamentary reform brought full popular elections, and in 1996, the first direct presidential election was held—making the Republic of China in Taiwan a fully democratic state.
Today, the Republic of China on Taiwan is not only a preserver of Confucian culture but also one of the freest economies in the world, consistently ranking high in the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom. Furthermore, it became the first in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, demonstrating the inclusiveness of its democratic system.
Thus, on the 80th anniversary of victory in the War of Resistance, we must reaffirm: the Republic of China is the true heir to China’s political, economic, cultural, and constitutional legitimacy. The current government in Taipei should emphasize this legacy, seizing the discourse from the Communists, and presenting the commemoration as a call for peace in Asia—not, as Beijing does, as a tool of anti-Japanese hatred.
The Path Forward: History, Freedom, and Hope
Since 1949, the Communists have brought disaster to China. In 1989, the Chinese democracy movement coincided with Poland’s elections, showing that China could have been a pioneer of democratization in the Communist world. Though the movement failed for lack of experience, subsequent economic growth has strengthened constitutional awareness among the people. In 2022, the “White Paper Revolution” broke out, with Shanghai protesters shouting “Down with the Communist Party, down with Xi Jinping”—a clear signal of the Chinese people’s yearning for liberty. History shows the resilience of this nation. China’s democratization is not an illusion, but an inevitable course of history.
The 80th anniversary of the War of Resistance is not only a time to remember the past, but also a moment to reaffirm the legitimacy of the Republic of China and the unyielding spirit of freedom among the Chinese people.
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How to Cite this Article (APA 7th edition):
Wang, H. H. (2025, September 3). The 80th anniversary of China’s victory in the War of Resistance: Defending the truth and the legitimacy of the Republic of China. [Blog post]. William Hongsong Wang. https://williamhongsongwang.com/2025/09/03/the-80th-anniversary-of-chinas-victory-in-the-war-of-resistance-defending-the-truth-and-the-legitimacy-of-the-republic-of-china/
William Wang 