Ma Ying-jeou on Commemoration Day of Taiwan’s Restoration

Chinese and U.S. trade negotiators spent their Saturday talking in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where Bloomberg just reported U.S. is saying the discussions were “very constructive.”

Donald Trump is on his plane to Asia, where he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to the White House.

Here in Beijing, the government’s top news is the 80th anniversary of Taiwan’s restoration to China, the mainland’s first Commemoration Day of Taiwan’s Restoration.

Headlining a conference in Beijing is Wang Huning, a senior leader of the Communist Party of China, where he “stressed that people on both sides of the Strait should shoulder their historical responsibilities in promoting peaceful development of cross-Strait relations and realizing national rejuvenation” and “emphasized the importance of adhering to peaceful reunification,” according to Xinhua.

Across the Taiwan Strait, the Democratic Progressive Party-led government refused to commemorate the occasion. Its secretary-general recently declared “there is no such thing as Taiwan’s Retrocession Day.”

Ma Ying-jeou, former leader of Taiwan - officially President of the Republic of China - from 2008 to 2016 of the Kuomingtang/KMT/Nationalist Party today wrote the following post on Meta:

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the Commemoration Day of Taiwan’s Restoration. Eighty years ago, after years of resisting Japanese aggression and through countless bloody battles, the Chinese nation finally won a hard-fought victory. More than 3 million soldiers of the Nationalist Army were killed or wounded, nearly 300 generals fell in battle, and over 20 million innocent civilians lost their lives. That victory brought an end to Japan’s 50-year colonial rule and returned Taiwan to China—namely, to the Republic of China—a moment of profound historical significance.

This is a chapter of history that all Taiwanese should remember with reverence. Without victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, there would have been no restoration of Taiwan, and without that restoration the Republic of China would not enjoy today’s peace and prosperity. Yet it is regrettable that the secretary-general of our ruling party recently claimed that “there is no Commemoration Day of Taiwan’s Restoration,” and even argued that the people of Taiwan at the time should still be regarded as Japanese. Such Japan-accommodating remarks completely distort historical facts, insult the great significance of Taiwan’s restoration, and betray the Taiwanese heroes who sacrificed their lives in the war of resistance.

In the 20th year of the Guangxu reign (1894), China