By Ben Blanchard
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan does not commemorate peace with the barrel of a gun, President Lai Ching-te said on Wednesday, delivering veiled criticism of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s military parade in Beijing to mark 80 years since the end of World War Two.
Democratically-governed Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory, has repeatedly lambasted China for what Taipei sees as a distorted view of the war, as the Republic of China was the government at the time, fighting alongside the Allies.
The Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists and retains the formal name to this day.
Writing on his Facebook page to mark Armed Forces Day in Taiwan, Lai said republican general Hsu Yung-chang signed the Japan surrender on behalf of China, calling it “gratifying” that the former Axis powers had all become democracies since.
“The people of Taiwan cherish peace, and Taiwan does not commemorate peace with the barrel of a gun,” he wrote.
The definition of fascism is broad, encompassing extreme nationalism, intense control of freedom of speech, secret police networks, and “overt cults of personality around strongman leaders”, Lai added.
He did not directly mention China’s war parade, at which Xi, flanked by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, warned the world was facing a choice between peace and war.
Some Taiwan television stations showed the event, but it did not get the same wall-to-wall coverage as in China.
“I think that the three of them joining together is meant to show they might be willing to use force to invade Taiwan and threaten Western countries,” said Taipei restaurant owner Chen Ho-chien, 29, referring to the three leaders.
China says the communist party formed the “backbone” of the fighting against Japan.
Responding to its parade, Taiwan’s China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said it was the people and military of the Republic of China who had made “countless sacrifices and contributions, ultimately achieving victory”.
“The Chinese communists sought only to expand and consolidate its own power and made no contribution to the war effort,” it said in a statement.
“No matter how many resources the Chinese communists spend on celebratory events, it cannot obscure the ironclad historical facts.”
During China’s parade, Lai attended a memorial ceremony at Taipei’s National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine to commemorate those who died fighting for the Republic of China, including those who battled Japan and the communists.
China detests Lai, who says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, as a “separatist” and has rebuffed his repeated calls for talks. China has massively increased its military pressure on Taiwan, including holding war games nearby.
Taiwan told its people not to attend Beijing’s parade.
The most high-profile attendee from Taiwan was Hung Hsiu-chu, former chairwoman of its largest opposition party, the Kuomintang, or KMT.
The KMT was the Republic of China’s ruling party during the war against Japan, and it fled, along with the republican government, to Taiwan in 1949.
The KMT did not send any official delegation to Beijing’s parade.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Fabian Hamacher and Yi-Chin Lee; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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