China’s Central Archives on 7 July opened more than 57,000 previously restricted documents—over 40,000 of them detailing the 1931-45 War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression—to mark the 80th anniversary of the country’s victory over Japan and the wider World Anti-Fascist War. Officials said the trove, now available for public and scholarly review, includes battlefield reports, diplomatic cables and personal accounts spanning the entire conflict. The document release forms part of a nationwide commemorative programme centred on the 88th anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 7 July 1937, which triggered Japan’s full-scale invasion of China. In Beijing, the Museum of the War of Chinese People’s Resistance Against Japanese Aggression debuted the exhibition “For National Liberation and World Peace”, while Shanghai opened a photographic display honouring the U.S.‐China ‘Flying Tigers’ air unit. In Harbin, the Unit 731 evidence hall screened—for the first time in China—the full video testimony of former Japanese army medic Masakuni Kurumizawa. President Xi Jinping on the anniversary laid a wreath at the Hundred Regiments Offensive memorial in Yangquan, Shanxi, and Politburo Standing Committee member Cai Qi addressed a ceremony at the Marco Polo Bridge, urging national unity but avoiding direct criticism of Tokyo. The calibrated messaging suggests Beijing is balancing an assertive historical narrative with efforts to keep recently improving ties with Japan on track.