Xi lauds contributions of China, Russia to WWII victory

Mutual wartime support 

The Chinese and Russian people supported and fought alongside each other and forged friendship with blood and lives in the war against Fascism and militarism, the Chinese leader said.

In the toughest moment of the Great Patriotic War, many death-defying Chinese devoted themselves to aiding China's neighboring ally.

Mao Anying, son of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong, served as an artillery officer of the First Belarusian Front under the Soviet Union Red Army. He helped fight Nazi Germany and capture Berlin, while Chinese pilot Tang Duo joined the Soviet Air Force and achieved great feats in the aerial combat against Fascist troops.

During wartime, Ivanovo International Orphanage, a boarding school for children of revolutionaries around the world located 250 km northeast of Moscow, sheltered many offspring of Chinese martyrs.

Despite their tender age, those children volunteered to dig trenches, make clothes, prepare food and other supplies. Some even donated blood monthly to front-line soldiers.

During the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Soviet Union provided valuable political and humanitarian support to China as well as large quantities of supplies and equipment for the Chinese people, Xi noted.

To help combat the Japanese invaders, more than 2,000 Soviet pilots in volunteer squadrons came and defended China's airspace, while the Soviet Red Army fought shoulder by shoulder with Chinese troops in Northeast China at the war's final stage.

The Chinese people will always remember those Russian soldiers and the people who died supporting the independence and liberation of the Chinese nation, Xi said.