Where were you in the World Anti-Fascist War?

To Australians reading the ambassador’s 22 August article, it may come as a surprise that their parents and grandparents fought in something called ‘the World Anti-Fascist War’. But even Dastyari was unclear on what it meant; he thought it was the Chinese term for World War II. Loose use of the term indulges in Stalinist fantasies and loses sight of World War II as a collective battle against repressive states and ideas. During much of that war, the Soviet Union had a non-aggression pact with Japan, so the term ‘World Anti-Fascist War’ bore no reference to the struggle underway in China. In On Protracted War, Mao argued that China’s war with Japan was the product of a ‘general crisis of world capitalism’ which only communism could overcome.