Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-03
By: Staff Reporter

Kuomintang honorary chair Lien Chan’s trip to Beijing to attend the military

Lien Chan meets Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Sept. 1, 2015. (Photo/CNS)

parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day has split political and public opinion in Taiwan, says Duowei News, a US-based Chinese political news outlet.

Lien, who was KMT chair between 2000 and 2005 and vice president of Taiwan from 1996 to 2000, met with China’s president and Communist Party chief Xi Jinping on Tuesday ahead of Thursday’s parade, which will be attended by heads of state from 30 nations. It is the third time the two have met, with the previous meetings taking place in February 2013 and February last year.

On Tuesday, Lien was quoted as saying that China’s war of resistance against Japan between 1937 and 1945 was the joint effort of the Kuomintang (Nationalist) government and the Communist Party of China, which runs contrary to the KMT’s long-held assertion that it was the Nationalist Revolutionary Army that led the charge against the Japanese, with the Communists playing a minor role. The version of history that the PRC teaches its citizens is broadly the converse.     [FULL  STORY]