China rewrites history books to extend Sino-Japanese war by six years

In a move expected to anger Japan, government orders amendment of school texts to move back war’s official outbreak from 1937 to 1931

China’s government has ordered that all Chinese history textbooks be rewritten to extend the second Sino-Japanese war by six, a move likely to inflame relations with Japan.

The conflict, which has been known for generations in China as the “eight-year war of resistance against Japanese aggression”, is usually recorded as starting in 1937 and ending in 1945. However, in a statement on Wednesday, President Xi Jinping’s government renamed the conflict the “14-year war of resistance against Japanese aggression” and has ordered that textbooks be revised to record it as lasting from 1931 until 1945.

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