A forum on American friends and China's Anti-Japanese War was held in Shanghai from Dec 8 to 11.

Sponsored by the Contemporary World Studies Center under the International Communication Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Publicity Department of the CPC Shanghai municipal committee, the forum drew Xie Yuan, vice-president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, and Sheril Foster Bischoff, niece of Helen Foster Snow, to deliver keynote speeches.

Helen Foster Snow was the ex-wife of Edgar Snow (1905-72), the author of the famous book “Red Star Over China” published in 1936 after he visited northern Shaanxi province where he interviewed leaders of the Red Army including Mao Zedong.

Helen Foster Snow reported from China in the 1930s under the name “Nym Wales” on the developing revolution in China. Like Edgar Snow, she was never a member of the CPC or American Communist Party but was sympathetic to the revolutionaries in China.

Forum participants reached the consensus that China's victory in the Anti-Japanese War was inseparable from the sympathy and support of the people worldwide, American people represented by Edgar Snow and Helen Foster Snow in particular.

They spoke highly of the contribution Edgar Snow and Helen Foster Snow had made to the Anti-Japanese War led by the CPC.

Before the forum started, An Wei, honorary chairman of the Edgar & Helen Snow Studies Center in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi province, made a presentation briefing the job his center had done.