BEIJING: China has ordered all schools to teach pupils that its 20th-century war with Japan lasted 14 years rather than eight, the education ministry said on Wednesday, to \u201cstrengthen patriotic education\u201d.
\nChinese textbooks currently date the \u201cChinese People\u2019s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression\u201d to July 7, 1937 and the Marco Polo Bridge Incident which heralded Japan\u2019s full-scale invasion.
\nBut new guidelines call for all curriculum materials at schools and universities across the country to push back the start to the Mukden Incident of Sept 18, 1931, after which Tokyo\u2019s forces occupied Manchuria in north-eastern China.
\nThe initial years of Japanese regional occupation and the wider later struggle were \u201cparts of the same whole\u201d, the ministry said, adding that the change was intended to \u201cstrengthen patriotic education\u201d.
\nBeijing in 2015 commemorated the 70th anniversary of Japan\u2019s Second World War defeat with a spectacular military parade in Beijing, with state media barely mentioning the roles of other allies or the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
\nCourse materials must all \u201cfully reflect how the Chinese Communist Party was a tower of strength during the war\u201d and \u201chighlight how the Chinese people were not afraid of ferocious adversity\u201d, the ministry said.
\nSpeaking at a regular press briefing on Wednesday, foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said the change would help younger generations remember their past.
\n\u201cI want to emphasise that to change this is not to carry forward hatred,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING: China has ordered all schools to teach pupils that its 20th-century war with Japan lasted 14 years rather than eight, the education ministry said on Wednesday, to \u201cstrengthen patriotic education\u201d. Chinese textbooks currently date the \u201cChinese People\u2019s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression\u201d to July 7, 1937 and the Marco Polo Bridge Incident which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n