ORWELL NAILED IT: Fight Over ‘Correct’ Historical Memory Permeates China’s War Anniversary Commemorations.

When Beijing’s leaders—such as President Xi Jinping—talk of “safeguarding” the “victory” of World War II, then, they’re talking about defending the idea of the Communist state as the only legitimate inheritor of “China’s victory”—as well as the idea that China, as a victor of the war, enjoys a naturally superior status to Tokyo, the instigator and loser. At home, it means a history that ignores all the messy horrors of the war, and instead tells a safe, party-approved story of moral triumph.

Chinese sacrifices in the war against the Japanese, of course, were enormous. But there’s one particularly thorny problem with Beijing claiming that wartime victory gives it carte blanche: The Nationalist Party did most of the sacrificing. While many communist guerrillas fought heroically, the Communist Party used the opportunity to rebuild itself in its mountain fastness of Yan’an.

Commies lie.