Remarks at the Opening of a U.S. China Policy Foundation Photo Exhibition on the 70th Anniversary of the End of World War II

Remarks at the Opening of a U.S. China Policy Foundation Photo Exhibition
on the 70th Anniversary of the End of World War II

Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.)
Russell S. O. B., Washington, D.C.  12 June 2015

Seventy years ago China and the United States celebrated the defeat of a mortal threat to civilization from fascism and militarism.  Our cooperation changed history for the better. We honor the millions who gave their lives to achieve victory.  They surely did not die in vain.

Since that greatest of all world wars, the relationship between China and the United States has gone through many evolutions.  We have cooperated and contended and colluded and competed.  We do not know what will come next.

It is fitting that we meet today to commemorate those years when China’s and America’s recognition of common interests led to an historic victory of benefit to both peoples.  The war that produced that victory shaped the modern identities of both countries.  It birthed the world order in which we have lived for the past seventy years and laid the basis for new heights in global prosperity and, ultimately, the revitalization of China.

Now we are entering an era in which China is regaining the relative wealth, power, and prestige of past millennia.  A new world order is emerging from the old.  China and the United States are being challenged to develop and sustain a relationship of mutual respect that reflects these realities.  The extent to which our two countries succeed or fail at this task will shape the world as well as the identities of both countries, as our struggles in the second world war did.

The world will be a better place if patriots in both China and America continue to seek cooperation rather than contention.  This exhibit is a timely and very welcome reminder of that.