Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-21
By: Samuel Hui

After Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, announced his decision to award

Veterans attend an event in Taipei to mark the 77th anniversary of the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, July 6, 2014. (Photo/China Times)

medals to veterans who fought in World War II under the banner of the Republic of China to mark the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender, the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China apparently sent a message to all major state-run media to prevent ROC veterans still living in mainland China from apply to receive the medals.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense believes there to be 3,675 surviving veterans who fought on the side of the Allies during World War II living in Taiwan today, while volunteer organizations from mainland China say nearly 30,000 ROC veterans are living on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. Most of them faced persecution for fighting on the Nationalist side after the Communist victory in the civil war that followed WWII and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Many of these veterans in mainland China desperately seek recognition from the ROC Armed Forces, Taiwanese volunteer Liu Tai-ping told our sister paper Want Daily last month ahead of the recent meeting between Eric Chu, chair of Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang, and Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC.     [FULL  STORY]