When the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, recently declared that China was standing alongside Russia, Iran, and North Korea during its September 3 commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, her words quickly drew criticism. Kallas dismissed the commemorations as “anti-Western optics” and framed them as a direct challenge to the so-called “rules-based international system.” She went further, questioning the actual contribution of China and Russia in the global anti-fascist war.

It is hard to reconcile such statements with Europe’s own historical memory. For a continent that endured the devastation of World War II, one might expect deeper historical literacy and sensitivity. Instead, Kallas’s comments displayed a striking level of ideological bias, reductionism, and historical distortion. Such rhetoric not only risks further straining China-EU relations but also undermines the very credibility of the EU as a serious actor in global diplomacy.

Eighty years ago, China was one of the major battlefronts against fascism. From 1937, when full-scale Japanese aggression began, the Chinese people fought a brutal eight-year struggle against invasion. With enormous national sacrifice-tens of millions dead and wounded, countless towns and cities destroyed-China played a pivotal role in pinning down Japanese forces that otherwise could have been redirected toward other theaters of war.

Without China’s resistance, the trajectory of the war in Asia and even in Europe might have been drastically different. At the time, China received support from allies, including Russia, the United States, and certain European figures, who recognized the significance of China’s........

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