China to mark trigger incident of Japanese invasion

Northeast China's Liaoning province will hold a grand ceremony on September 18 to commemorate the 83rd anniversary of the "9.18 Incident," or "Mukden Incident," which marks the beginning of the 14-year war against Japanese aggression.

Shenyang, the Liaoning capital city where the incident occurred in 1931, will sound warning sirens and ring bells along with another 14 cities to remind people of the war that lasted from 1931 to 1945, according to a statement from the city government.

Government officials from the city and province will attend the ceremony.

Commemorative activities will also be held in various cities across the country.

On Sept 18, 1931, Japanese troops blew up a section of the railway under their control near Shenyang, and then accused Chinese troops of sabotage as a pretext for attack. They bombarded barracks near Shenyang the same evening, beginning a large-scale armed invasion of northeast China.

The incident was followed by Japan's full-scale invasion of China and the rest of Asia, triggering the war against Japanese aggression.