This article appears in the August 22, 2025 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
80th Anniversary of the Victory Against Japanese Militarism:
A Reminder of the Historic Opportunity for U.S.-China Friendship
Richard Black is the Schiller Institute’s representative at the UN.
Aug. 15—China has announced a day of international commemoration on September 3, 2025, the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Japanese fascism in the Summer of 1945. President Xi Jinping will deliver a major address that day, at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, in the presence of heads of state from across the globe, to be followed by a “grand military parade” honoring that victory. Twenty-two thousand troops will pass in review. Shockingly, this day is little recognized today in the West. According to , China suffered more than 35 million casualties, both soldiers and civilians, in the course of that resistance. The enormous effort of the entire nation of China between 1931 and 1945, along with the heroism of the Soviet Union, played an outsized role in saving civilization from a fascist holocaust.
Importantly, the international Schiller Institute is circulating a call titled, “Urgent Appeal to Presidents Xi Jinping, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin!,” which defines that September 3 victory celebration in Beijing as a special opportunity to rekindle that global alliance for the good whose potential was last experienced 80 years ago.
The Schiller Institute call states:
There is a great historic opportunity in front of us, where the leaders of three great nations could send a powerful signal to the world. If President Xi Jinping would invite President Trump to the military parade scheduled for September 3rd in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, and President Trump would accept the invitation, as President Putin is also expected to be present, the people of the world could find hope that those three leaders would open a new chapter in the history of humanity.
A New Kind of International Dialogue
The August 15 summit meeting of Presidents Putin and Trump in Alaska focused on ending the military conflict in Ukraine and exploring normal joint economic development, and occurred in the wake of President Xi’s participation in Moscow on May 9. That date, known in Russia as Victory Day, marks the role of the Soviet Union and allies in the defeat of Nazi Germany. These Trump, Putin, Xi meetings point to a new kind of international collaboration. The Schiller Institute is currently gathering signatures from both international experts and citizens from all nations in support of the call for a Xi-Putin-Trump summit on September 3.
As was the defeat of world fascism in the Pacific theater 80 years ago on September 2, 1945, so, could September 3, 2025 in Beijing be the launchpoint of a new era of development for all humanity.
China’s decision to make the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Japanese militarism a stunning international event is history-shaping for two reasons. First, it will rekindle the memory of facism’s defeat by a then Soviet-U.S.-China alliance, at a time when, today, certain leaders in Western Europe and NATO are openly preparing for a nuclear war against Russia and planning for war against China! Second, the September 3 event occurs as the BRICS group of nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and partners—is acting upon an economic development blueprint referred to by President Putin as a “global polyphony,” and by the Schiller Institute as the concept: “the new name for peace is economic development.”
China is the world leader in advanced economic development and in poverty eradication. President Xi Jinping has led the world in actions rooted in a profound concept dating back to Renaissance thinkers of both the East and West, namely, that economic development of populations, national security, and a beautiful culture are all part of a single, noble notion of man. Thus, China is, in practice, the leading “proof” that the defeat of fascism, colonialism, and “hegemonism” only succeeds when nations engage together in great projects of science, of infrastructure, of agriculture, of exploration of the galaxies!
Lessons from the Victory Against Fascism
Japan’s war against China began in September 1931 when Japan seized the city of Mukden in China’s Manchuria region, and shortly thereafter began bombing densely populated Shanghai. By July of 1937, Japan had invaded the Beijing area with 160,000 troops, marking a further escalation. Before long, the United States of President Franklin Roosevelt became China’s ally against Japan’s fascist military machine. In 1941, the U.S. extended the “Lend-Lease Act,” opening up U.S. government financial flows to China. That same year, President Roosevelt issued the executive order for the formation of the now famous “Flying Tigers” American fighter pilot squadron in southern China, under the command of “Colonel” Claire Chennault, challenging Japanese air superiority.
Further, when Roosevelt first presented the UN Charter in 1944, he was adamant that China must serve as a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council, proclaiming China to be a great nation with both a profound history and an extraordinary future. When the British Empire’s racist Prime Minister Winston Churchill opposed Roosevelt on the matter, Roosevelt sharply overrode Churchill, exclaiming that the UN was “not going to be a white man’s club.”
The September 3 “grand military parade” on the world stage in Beijing must remind some, and teach others, that there is a great history of shared sacrifice and struggle of China and the U.S.—together.
Development Is the New Name of Peace: A China-U.S.-Russia Plan, Revisited
In 2014, Chinese engineers proposed that a Bering Strait tunnel—connecting Alaska and Siberia—would open the door to a “China-Russia-Alaska-Canada-U.S. high-speed rail” project. While surprising to many, this had been a project long proposed by renowned American economist and statesman, Lyndon LaRouche.
China’s national leader of tunnel building and high-speed rail, Wang Mengshu (1938-2018), took the point in urging the Chinese government, as covered across Chinese media, to consider the feasibility of a rail connection to the United States. This led to a December 2014 New York Times interview which generated waves internationally!
The Jinghua Times’ May 8, 2014 interview with Wang stated, for example, “China plans a high-speed rail: Chinese people are expected to take the high-speed rail trip of only 2 days to the United States.”
The interview quotes engineer Wang saying that the Bering Strait crossing—
is a wish and a dream of not only China’s railway experts but also railway engineers in Russia, Canada and the U.S. whom I have spoken to. The technology developments in recent years in high-speed railway and underwater tunnels make it possible. It is a dream, but one that is within reach. The Chinese central government is not seriously considering it, not yet. But, why not? We have the technology, and it is a good thing to do. It would benefit generations to come, and the environment. As railway engineers, we think it would be a great legacy to leave for future generations.
‘A Blessing for All Humanity!’
Fast-forward to today. In an August 11 interviewwith the Russian government news agency TASS, Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche discussed this “Alaska connection” with an eye to the then-upcoming summit in Alaska between Presidents Trump and Putin. She told the news service:
The anticipated summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump promises to become much more than finding a way to end the Ukraine crisis. The two Presidents could decide to finally build a 100-kilometer tunnel underneath the Bering Strait, which could connect Eurasia and the Americas, and which would involve the development of the vast resources of Siberia and the Far East, where there are the largest deposits of raw materials of all elements which you can find in Mendeleev’s Periodic Table. The joint development of these resources could become the perfect war-avoidance program and a blessing for all of humanity!
We expect that the September 3 commemoration of “The Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression” will be a widely watched success. President Xi Jinping said that the Chinese people’s resistance, “from the very outset, held profound significance in saving human civilization and defending world peace. It is an important part of the World Anti-Fascist War.” Given China’s stature today among the World Majority, the well-deserved recognition of their sacrifice 80 years ago can create a new potential for peace.
