Necessary anniversary

WITH ALL MEMBERS OF CHINA'S LEADERSHIP attending the ceremony to mark the 77th anniversary of the War Against Japanese Aggression on Monday, this occasion, observed every year on July 7, is of particular importance this year.

Not just because some right wing politicians in Japan have been trying to whitewash the atrocities Japanese aggressors committed during the war, but also because the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Japanese government "lifted the ban on collective self-defense" by reinterpreting the country's Constitution last week. This grants Japan and its Self-Defense Forces a much wider range of options in dealing with security conditions.

Even before the overhaul of its security posture last week, the denial of "comfort women" and various attempts by right wing Japanese politicians to rewrite that part of history was on people's lips and making headlines.