Tears, barbs and walkouts at Xiangshan as China and the West spar over history

Charged exchanges show fissure between China, the West on shaping world order

- Yew Lun Tian Senior Correspondent

Holding back tears, Chinese journalist Yu Yubing asked an American scholar not to belittle the suffering of her people during World War II.

She was intervening at a session at the Xiangshan Forum, China’s premier defence conference, on Sept 17, where the American speaker, Ms Elsa Kania of the Centre for a New American Security, had said that the showcase of military might at a recent parade could be perceived as aggressive.

For Ms Yu, 40, remembering the war is about honouring those who never caved in, not the triumphalist flexing of muscle or the stoking of hatred that much of the Western media had read into the victory parade that Beijing held on Sept 3 to commemorate the end of World War II.

Her intervention was one of several charged moments at the annual forum, held from Sept 17 to 19. About 1,800 officials, military personnel and scholars from 100 countries attended.

Billed as a platform for calm discussion about international security, this edition drew raw emotions, sharp exchanges and even a walkout — a reminder that 80 years after the guns fell silent, China and the West remain divided over what the war meant and how its lessons should shape today’s world order.

It was probably no coincidence that China scheduled the main day of the forum - Sept 18 — to coincide with the anniversary of the 1931 Mukden Incident, which marked the start of Japan’s invasion of Manchuria, in China’s northeast, and which Beijing sees as the start of World War II.

Defence Minister Dong Jun invoked the date in his opening speech, noting that commemorative air defence sirens were sounding across the country as he spoke.

Chinese scholars at the forum criticised the West for failing to give China due credit for its wartime sacrifices. They also called out right-wing Japanese politicians for what they described as “incorrect historical views” that sought to downplay, or even deny, the wartime atrocities.