There are many obscure tourist sites in Beijing. One missed by many foreigners is the Chinese People's Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall. The museum illustrates why China, the United States' most fearsome potential competitor, and Japan, Washington's most important Asian ally, often are at odds. The two are a conflict waiting to happen, which could draw the U.S. into war with a nuclear power.
Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over last week's World War II victory parade in Beijing. Declared Xi, the victory "put an end to China's national humiliation of suffering successive defeats at the hands of foreign aggressors in modern times."
However, the conflict with Japan continues in many people's minds. In 1931 Tokyo occupied Manchuria (creating the nominally independent kingdom of Manchukuo) and six years later initiated an aggressive war against the rest of China. In the ensuing civil war Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party defeated Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang, or Nationalists, and established the People's Republic of China.