By Tiago Dorian

Eighty years after the guns of the Second World War fell silent, the question facing the Philippines and China is no longer how to win a war—but how to keep the peace in a world once again shadowed by rivalry. In an age where confrontation tempts powerful states and proxy wars turn neighbors into pawns, remembering our shared resistance is not just an act of history but also a roadmap for survival.

This year of 2025 marks eighty years since the end of the Second World War, known in Asia as the World Anti-Fascist War, and the victory of the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression.

It is a time to recall not only the triumph over fascism but the resilience that made it possible. It is also a moment to remember that the unity which once defeated an empire is the unity we must summon now, in an era where confrontation and proxy wars again tempt the world.

The Philippines and China share more than a page in this history. We share a record of solidarity forged in hardship, both our peoples having been invaded and scarred by a war that sought to impose a single empire over Asia. For a Filipino farmer in Pangasinan and a Chinese villager in Hunan, the war was not a distant chapter but a lived trauma of burned villages, displaced families, and futures rewritten by occupation.

In 1931, China faced the illegal occupation of its northeastern territories by Japanese forces, the opening blow to a broader war marked by the Marco Polo Bridge incident of 1937. Four years later, the Philippines fell to invasion, its cities and provinces burned, its people forced under occupation until the war’s end. Across our islands, resistance rose both openly and in the shadows.

One such force was the Wha-Chi, or Squadron 48, composed of Chinese-Filipino guerrillas who fought in Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Zambales, the Sierra Madre, and other hinterlands of Luzon. Starting with just sixty men and seven rifles, they endured disease, hunger, and scarcity. In over two hundred engagements, they killed more than two thousand Japanese troops. In China, the siege of Nanjing and the brutality in Manchukuo only hardened resolve.

By war’s end, nearly one million Filipinos had perished, while China bore an estimated twenty million civilian deaths.

Both nations had suffered catastrophe yet emerged with the resolve that only comes from enduring it.

Together with other progressive forces, we helped defeat fascism. China became a founding member of the United Nations in 1945, co-drafting and being the first to sign the UN Charter. For the Philippines, liberation came not only through Allied campaigns but through the resilience of local resistance. The war taught both Manila and Beijing that peace is never a gift. It is built, and dismantled the moment unity is lost. It also showed that when nations of the Global South act together, they can change the course of history.

In the decades since, China has remained the only nuclear-armed state to pledge unconditional no-first-use of nuclear weapons and the only major nation to enshrine peaceful development in its Constitution. It is the largest contributor of peacekeepers among the permanent members of the UN Security Council and the second-largest funder of the UN regular budget and peacekeeping operations. The Philippines has sent its own peacekeepers abroad, upheld ASEAN’s consensus diplomacy, and advocated peaceful dispute resolution. Filipino troops have served in over thirteen UN missions across four continents.

Solidarity is a deliberate act, not an accident of circumstance, and it is our strongest shield against instability.

That choice continues today. The Philippines and China have worked together in disaster relief, in infrastructure partnerships under the Belt and Road Initiative, and in trade that reached over USD 38 billion in 2024. China is the Philippines’ largest trading partner for eight consecutive years, a position that anchors both economies against global uncertainty.

Joint marine research in the South China Sea, despite disputes, proves that collaboration can endure amid tension. Proof that dialogue is not weakness but the most durable form of defense.

Yet the system we fought to shape is under strain. Unilateralism erodes multilateral order. Wars in Gaza, Yemen, Ukraine, Libya, and Myanmar expose the limits of global governance. The Global South, through BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, is asserting more influence, while the Belt and Road continues to build links across continents.

For Southeast Asia, the choice is stark: benefit from cooperation or risk instability from proxy politics. In the South China Sea, over USD 3 trillion in trade flows annually, and history warns that division between neighbors only serves those who profit from conflict.

The sacrifices of the Philippines, China, and others in the World Anti-Fascist War prove that militarism and hegemony cannot bring peace. Zero-sum approaches lead to division, not development.

In an interdependent world, working together is not optional but rather is survival. The same logic that bound our peoples in the trenches eighty years ago must now bind us in diplomacy, infrastructure, and mutual security.

The UN Charter, signed eighty years ago, remains the cornerstone of the post-war system. Its principles are undermined when dialogue is bypassed and when dominance replaces consensus. President Xi has likened peace to air and sunshine; only valued when gone. His Global Security Initiative calls for disputes settled through dialogue, growth through win-win cooperation, and security built on mutual trust rather than weapons. For the Philippines, this is not rhetoric. It is the recognition that our peace, sovereignty, and economic future depend on cooperation, not confrontation.

As nations of the Global South, the Philippines and China share a stake in peaceful prosperity: maritime security that respects sovereignty while ensuring stability, joint disaster relief, cultural and educational exchanges, and infrastructure that uplifts communities. This partnership must also defend a fairer world order in global forums and resist efforts by outside powers to divide neighbors for strategic gain.

Eighty years after the deadliest war in human history, there is no place for narratives that pit our nations against each other.

The wars of the past must not dictate the politics of the present. In 1945, the Philippines and China proved that solidarity can defeat empires. In 2025, we must prove that solidarity can not only build peace but defend it against the ambitions of empires and the fractures of a world in transition.

This is our responsibility to our peoples, to ASEAN, and to the promise of a just and stable future. For a shared future of peace for all humanity.

 

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