Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945

by Rana Mitter

Following the signing of a treaty of neutrality between the USSR and Japan on April 13, 1941, Chiang predicted that the US would be drawn into the war in Asia, and even that Japan might later change its mind and attack the USSR. In that event, China would play a crucial role as the key Asian ally of both Washington and Moscow.57 The German invasion had taken Stalin by surprise (largely because he had failed to heed increasingly shrill warnings from senior colleagues who were receiving intelligence from well-placed spies in Germany), and the Comintern, seeking to shore up its alliances, now demanded that the Chinese Communists cooperate further with the Nationalists.58 The Central Committee of the CCP responded on June 23, 1941, with a declaration that it would “persevere in the Anti-Japanese United Front, persevere in [Nationalist]-Communist cooperation,” as well as allying itself with the British, the Americans, and others who opposed the “fascist rulers” of the Axis powers.