China's contribution to victory in World War II is "huge", said Robert Frank, secretary-general of the 22nd International Congress of Historical Sciences on Thursday at Jinan, Shandong province.

"It was also a very difficult contribution. ... That China emerged victorious proves that it was a great factor in the world war," said Frank, who is also a French historian.

China had been weak since the mid-19th century's Opium Wars, Frank said. But after the United Nations was established in 1945, the country received one of the five permanent seats on the Security Council. Ten other seats rotate among UN member states.