China's guerrilla war broke Japan's WWII military machine How did 30 Japanese divisions fail to beat China when just 10 divisions crushed American, British and Dutch forces in Southeast Asia? According to Professor Hu Dekun, the answer lies in China's special fighting strategy. China developed "protracted people's warfare," a plan that turned guerrilla fighting into a major military strategy. This approach slowly wore down Japan's army over years of fighting. Western historians, Hu says, still d