A week before China's V-Day commemorations, Beijing's top envoy in Washington urged both countries to remember their wartime bond to "jointly create a brighter future of peace", while the US embassy in China also invoked the history of Americans and Chinese fighting together during World War II.

Commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931–45) and the World Anti-Fascist War will be held on Sept 3 in Beijing.

At a gathering in Washington on Wednesday, Ambassador Xie Feng appealed for the US and China to "write new stories of people-to-people friendship and jointly create a brighter future of peace," drawing on the solidarity forged during World War II.

On the same day, the US Mission to China marked that wartime bond on its X platform, highlighting the Flying Tigers' origin story: "On August 1, 1941, the American Volunteer Group (AVG) was officially established, with its headquarters in Kunming, and Chennault serving as the team leader. The AVG was part of the Chinese Air Force sequence, which later became the famous Flying Tigers. On December 20, 1941, shortly after their arrival, the Flying Tigers encountered their first air battle."

The post links to a short video where researcher and filmmaker Jim Fields recounts that historic dogfight.

On Wednesday, the US Embassy in China also posted an article on WeChat, the Chinese social media platform, with a Chinese hashtag marking "the 80th anniversary of victory of the WWII".

In his speech, Xie noted that in 1931, China fired the first shot in the World Anti-Fascist War, saying that over the next 14 years 400 million Chinese "combated and tied down two-thirds of Japan's land forces," buying strategic time for the World Anti-Fascist War.

The struggle, he said, came "at the cost of 35 million lives."

Xie paid tribute to the deep bond forged between Chinese and American people in those years, recalling the US Flying Tigers pilots who fought in China's skies, the over 1,000 American soldiers who died along the Stilwell Road, and the thousands of Chinese civilians who risked their lives to rescue downed US pilots.

He named American figures such as Minnie Vautrin, who sheltered tens of thousands of Chinese women and children during the Nanjing Massacre, and author Pearl Buck, who exposed Japanese atrocities through her writing.

"We will never forget the friendship between Chinese and American people through life and death in that war, and will pass it down from generation to generation," he said.

Linking past solidarity to current relations, Xie stressed that "friendship between our people has always been the most solid foundation and the most enduring impetus for bilateral relations."

He cited Shanghai's wartime sheltering of 30,000 Jewish refugees and the mutual help during war and peace as examples of humanity transcending national divides — a spirit he urged both sides to uphold today.

For instance, the ambassador recalled that in Weixian, Shandong province, ordinary Chinese people braved death to help the more than 2,300 internees from Allied powers detained by the Japanese, including Arthur Hummel, who was to become US ambassador to China.

"The hope of the China-US relationship lies in the people," Xie said, quoting remarks by Chinese President Xi Jinping. He called for more subnational exchanges, youth programs and travel between the two countries, opposing efforts to "erect barriers" or "turn back the wheel of history."

Wednesday's event, Experience China — A Symphony of Stories on China-US People-to-People Friendship, was sponsored by the State Council Information Office and the embassy, and co-hosted by the China International Communications Group and the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation.

Jeffrey Green, chairman of the foundation, said the wartime bonds were "humanity in its purest form."

Green said that in the darkest days of World War II, whenever an American airman was shot down or forced down in occupied territory, "these young airmen would be nearly always saved by the Chinese people".

"There are no comparable historic examples where the people of one nation so consistently risked so much for those who had come from another land to help them. This was not merely an alliance, it was humanity in its purest form," he added.

Green pointed to the 2,590 names carved into the walls of the Anti-Japanese Aviation Martyrs Memorial Hall in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, alongside 408 missing in action.

"Hope," he said, "is a light that no war can ever extinguish."

During the story-sharing session at the event, several descendants of US servicemen described discovering connections to China that endured long after the war.

For Chris Magee, grandson of missionary Reverend John Magee, who had recorded the truth of the Nanjing Massacre with his camera, the connection to China carries more weight.

Magee said his grandfather originally came to Nanjing to film everyday life, but when Japanese troops invaded, he used that same family camera to film what was going on so the world could know what happened.

"It was completely horrific what was happening in Nanjing at the time," he said.

In 2017, Chris retraced his grandfather's steps in Nanjing, meeting a survivor who, as a child, had hidden beneath a carpet while Japanese soldiers killed her family. Reverend Magee had recorded the girl's name and story so that "she could one day know who she was and what she had experienced was true."

"So today, victory is hers because she's a grandmother and has a large family," Chris Magee said. "For me, the story of Nanjing and the deeds of my grandfather will always be right here in my heart."

Ross and Tracy Kantenberger, whose grandfather co-piloted a Doolittle Raid bomber, traveled to Quzhou, Zhejiang province last year to visit the Doolittle Raid Memorial Hall, which opened in 2018.

Ross recalled being "amazed at how many people were there," saying the outpouring showed "how much that time still means to people."

Tracy added that the trip reshaped her view of history's human toll.

"It was the first time I truly understood the devastating consequences faced by the locals, and I stood there just kind of humbled and heartbroken," she said.

For Jesse Millett, grandson of Flying Tigers medic Clinton Millett, the bond became personal. After following his grandfather's footsteps to Kunming in 2004, Jesse fell in love with the city and stayed.

"My grandfather took some of the earliest color photographs of Kunming in 1944," Millett told China Daily. "Now, I live there permanently. My wife is Chinese, my two children go to school there, and it's the most peaceful, safe and friendly place I know."

Alongside speeches, stories and music, the event organizers presented a powerful photo exhibition — Fighting Shoulder to Shoulder: Images of Chinese and American People Resisting Fascism Together.