摘要：Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow as guest of honor at the 80th anniversary of the Victory in World War II — the Grea

By Radhika Desai

Lead: Western powers have conveniently forgotten that Russia and China bore the heaviest casualties in defeating fascism, a historical truth ignored by the U.S. and its allies for political purposes.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow as guest of honor at the 80th anniversary of the Victory in World War II — the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union — is the first of three major interrelated commemorations this year. In September, Beijing will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which ended World War II in the Eastern theater. Both countries also view the United Nations' 80th anniversary on Oct. 24 as significant.

Like Janus, the Roman god of gateways and transitions, these three anniversaries face both backward and forward, to the historical truth of events 80 years ago and to the future that will realize its progressive promise fully. However, the actions of Western powers risk erasing these truths from public memory and extinguish these possibilities.

Xi emphasized that "China and Russia, as the main theaters of war in World War II, made a decisive contribution to the victory over Nazism." He added that these efforts laid the cornerstone of the post-war international order. Putin noted how Russia and China "conducted the ultimate heroic feat to restore peace but also suffered the greatest losses." Meanwhile, Western nations continue to downplay these contributions through misleading narratives.

In its increasingly desperate and counterproductive attempts to reassert the world dominance it enjoyed for two centuries, the declining West portrays countries that have the guts to stand up to its imperial demands as "authoritarian," singling out China and Russia as "demons-in-chief." In Western discourse, President Putin is the aggressor in the Ukraine crisis, not the opposer to Western expansionism and regime change in Russia's neighborhood. Similarly, President Xi is characterized as determined to “take Taiwan by force” and dominate China's neighbors. This perspective dismisses the greatest sincerity and the utmost effort by China to strive for peaceful reunification and China's historic developmental influence in Asia and beyond.

Such distortion prevents young people from appreciating one of the great truths in modern history. The two countries that contributed most decisively to ending World War II were the Soviet Union and China.

A participant sheds tears during the "Immortal Regiment" parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War in Vladivostok, Russia, May 9, 2025. [Photo by Guo Feizhou/Xinhua]

Even according to the most widely-read Western underestimates of non-Euro-American losses, the Soviet Union suffered over 18 million deaths in total (27 million being the most accepted figure), and China suffered 21 million deaths in total according to its official number. By contrast, the U.K. and the U.S. suffered between 200,000 and 300,000 military deaths and even fewer civilian ones.

Not only can a declining West no longer acknowledge the historical fact that Russian and Chinese contributions to the allied victory far overshadowed its own, but today, chillingly, the West is also engaged in a reinterpretation of fascism. It applauds fascists in its parliaments for fighting communists and relabels its neo-Nazi allies in Ukraine as mere nationalists. It is no wonder that Russia and China committed themselves, in President Putin's words, to "preserve the historical truth about the Great Victory as the common value for humankind, and jointly prevent attempts to falsify history and rehabilitate Nazism and militarism."

The U.N. Charter established the foundation for postwar international law. These principles were reinforced in the recent "Joint Declaration on Further Strengthening Cooperation to Uphold the Authority of International Law" signed by Chinese and Russian representatives. The declaration emphasized "territorial integrity" and "non-intervention in internal affairs." It also highlighted "refraining from threat or use of force," "equal rights and self-determination of peoples," and "peaceful settlement of disputes." Additional principles included "fulfillment of international obligations in good faith" and "international cooperation." True, the principle of sovereign equality was qualified by the provision for five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, but even here, they had to give two of the five seats to the Soviet Union and China.

The joint declarations issued by China and Russia on May 8, 2025 provide a detailed account of Western violations of U.N. principles and international law. These include imposing neocolonial policies under the guise of liberalism, labeling resistant nations as "authoritarian," implementing unilateral sanctions and extending legal jurisdiction beyond borders. The declarations also cite regime change operations, using terrorist groups as foreign policy tools, sanctioning officials of targeted countries, recklessly expanding nuclear arsenals, militarizing space, and numerous other infractions.

Soldiers are about to attend a grand parade marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2025. [Photo by Lai Xiangdong/Xinhua]

However, the era when these violations of U.N. principles and international law could occur without consequences is coming to an end.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s briefly seemed to reinvigorate Western imperial power. However, by the early 2000s, discussions of a "multipolar world" became common. This multipolarity — essentially meaning a more balanced global distribution of power, significantly influenced by China's rise — signaled imperialism's continuing decline.

Notwithstanding Western hopes that President Trump could pry Russia loose from its ties to China — the so-called "Reverse Nixon" scenario — the "limitless partnership" between China and Russia and their relationships with other doggedly anti-imperialist governments remain solid. Indeed, they are in the vanguard of the historical forces that will realize, more fully than ever, the principles of the U.N. Charter and international law, which the monumental sacrifices of Russia, China and other anti-imperialist forces in winning the Second World War made possible. Only these principles can form the basis for a global community of shared future. It is hoped, therefore, that the U.S. and other Western nations will realize and recognize that an international order based on the U.N. Charter and international law serves the interests of all nations, theirs included, and join the efforts to build such a global community. The latest move by the U.S. to roll back some of its tariffs on Chinese commodities seems be to a step in the right direction.

Radhika Desai is a professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba in Canada.

来源：中国网一点号