CCP Appropriates Taiwan Retrocession Day

Dennis Yang

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Taiwan Retrocession 80th Anniversary hosted by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Alliance for China’s Peaceful Reunification. (Source: ACPR)

Executive Summary:

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using the 80th anniversary of Taiwan’s retrocession to push a revisionist history, formally designating it as a national holiday, and framing 1945 as the legal return of Taiwan to China to strengthen its sovereignty claims over Taiwan.

Through its “Three 80th Anniversaries” campaign, Beijing ties Taiwan’s retrocession to China’s World War Two victory and the founding of the United Nations, repackaging these events as historical proof of rightful unification.

Taiwan’s domestic struggles regarding its identity and different interpretations of the retrocession by the two leading parties create social cleavages that Beijing exploits.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is sponsoring retrocession commemoration events in the United States, exporting misinformation and lawfare abroad, and using historical commemoration to legitimize present-day territorial claims.

On October 24, the New York chapter of the Alliance for China’s Peaceful Reunification (ACPR; 全美和平统一促进会) hosted a gala in Flushing to commemorate the “80th Anniversary of Taiwan’s Retrocession” (台湾光复 80 周年). The event, attended by the New York Consul General of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Chen Li (陈立) and several deputies, combined a policy forum with a cultural performance. Chen called on overseas Chinese to “support national reunification and oppose ‘Taiwan independence’” (支持国家统一、反对‘台独’). Organizers hailed Beijing’s decision to designate October 25 as “Taiwan Retrocession Memorial Day” (台湾光复纪念日), describing it as a reminder of the “shared bloodline and destiny between compatriots on both sides of the Strait” (两岸同胞血脉相连、命运与共) (The Voice of Chinese, October 25). At a similar event in June, the Philadelphia ACPR declared that the victory in the anti-Japanese War belongs especially to the “Taiwan compatriots” (尤其是台湾同胞) who sacrificed their lives (ACPR, June 9). [1] The commemorations on U.S. soil highlights the PRC’s use of united front networks to export revisionist historical narratives that use the language of remembrance to advance legally dubious present-day sovereignty claims.

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