© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/22127453-12341339 Journal of Chinese Military History 8 (2019) 52-99 brill.com/jcmh Bones of Contention: China’s World War II Military Graves in India, Burma, and Papua New Guinea Linh D. Vu Arizona State University linhvu@asu.edu Abstract Exploring the construction and maintenance of Nationalist Chinese soldiers’ graves overseas, this article sheds light on post-World War II commemorative politics. After having fought for the Allies against Japanese aggression in the China-Burma-India Theater, the Chinese expeditionary troops sporadically received posthumous care from Chinese veterans and diaspora groups. In the Southeast Asia Theater, the Chinese soldiers imprisoned in the Japanese-run camps in Rabaul were denied burial in the Allied war cemetery and recognition as military heroes. Analyzing archival documents from China, Taiwan, Britain, Australia, and the United States, I demonstrate how the afterlife of Chinese servicemen under foreign sovereignties mattered in the making of the modern Chinese state and its international status. Keywords World War II – commemoration – military cemetery – war dead – China – India – Burma – Papua New Guinea This article explores the necro-politics of China’s overseas military graves in the late 1940s, uncovering how the afterlife of the expeditionary soldiers mat- tered in the construction of the modern Chinese state and its international status. Analyzing archival documents in China, Taiwan, Britain, Australia, and the United States, I maintain that resources, historical precedents, and diplo- macy played key roles in determining the fate of fallen Chinese expedition- ary force soldiers and prisoners of war, and that the absence of proper care for these war dead in turn reflected and influenced the status of China under