Through these humiliations by the foreign imperialists, Chinese people learned the lesson that a country without a strong military force to defend itself, would be victimized by imperialist powers. These are the lessons of blood and flesh. When outsiders make light comments about China's military review, they do not understand the pain and suffering that Chinese people had experienced from generation to generation. Likewise, they cannot understand the Chinese people's determination to prevent what happened in the past from happening again.

The Abe Administration in Japan recently has been escalating its efforts to discard the country's peaceful constitution imposed on Japan by the American occupational authorities. Japan, who had committed such atrocities on its neighbors during its aggression, should never be allowed to have an aggressive military. As the recent protests by the Japanese people demonstrate, the Japanese people do not want to rearm as well.

In the last few years, a few countries, encouraged by the US who has been talking about its rebalancing strategy in Asia, want to challenge China's traditional territorial integrity in the South China Sea. They may underestimate Chinese people's determination to defend its territorial integrity.

China has been one of the most peace loving countries in world history. It refrains now and in history from using military means to solve disputes between nations. And China is the only permanent member of the UN Security Council of the United Nations that still has territorial integrity issues due to the side-effect of the arrangement after WWII.

China has made the greatest sacrifice and great contribution to defeating the international fascists and building the post WWII order. And It is time that the world should credit China for that.

The author is a professor of Warren Wilson College and guest professor of Hebei University.