Beijing to celebrate 80th anniversary of Japanese handover of Taiwan to Chinese rule
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Spokeswoman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office Zhu Fenglian said the government would invite people from Taiwan to attend the celebration.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BEIJING – China will hold a celebration to mark the 80th anniversary of Taiwan’s “retrocession” to Chinese rule, the government said on Oct 22, which sources told Reuters would take place in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People this weekend.
Oct 25 marks the anniversary of Japan, which colonised Taiwan in 1895, handing the island to the Republic of China government in 1945. Both Taipei and Beijing refer to the handover as the “retrocession”.
China and Taiwan, which Beijing views as its own territory, have repeatedly clashed in 2025 over their differing interpretations of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Taiwan says it was the Republic of China that fought the war, not the People’s Republic of China, which was founded by Mr Mao Zedong’s communists in 1949 after they won the country’s civil war. The Republic of China government fled to Taipei and the Republic of China remains Taiwan’s formal name.
Ms Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told reporters in Beijing that the government would hold a celebration to mark the anniversary and invite people from Taiwan to attend. She did not give an exact date or say which Chinese leaders would attend.
“Taiwan’s retrocession stands as a significant achievement of the victory in the War of Resistance,” Ms Zhu said, referring to World War II.
“It was a great triumph forged through the relentless and bloody struggles of all Chinese people, including our compatriots in Taiwan, and deserves to be commemorated jointly by compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.”
Three diplomatic sources told Reuters that China had sent out invites for the event, which would take place on the morning of Oct 25 in the Great Hall of the People. The invitation did not say who would address the meeting, they added.
At the last such event in 2015, Mr Yu Zhengsheng, at the time China’s fourth-ranked leader, gave a speech and foreign representatives attended.
Taipei last week banned Taiwanese officials from attending any “retrocession” events in China
Ms Zhu said it was Taiwan that was trying to “distort and deny the historical facts” of World War II, and “intimidate and suppress” Taiwanese from attending related Chinese events.
China in September marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with a massive military parade
