WWII recovery of Taiwan celebrated across Straits
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-25 20:32

China on Tuesday marked the 60th anniversary of its taking back Taiwan from a half century of Japanese colonial rule, with people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits hailing the historic event as a glory of the Chinese nation.

Marking the day, senior Chinese leader Jia Qinglin delivered a keynote speech at a grand public gathering in Beijing, while Ma Ying-jeou, chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang Party (KMT) in Taiwan, published an article on China Times newspaper. Both paid a high tribute to the heroes on both sides of the Straits who had "fought side by side against Japanese aggression."

"The struggles of Taiwan compatriots against Japanese aggressors were an important part of the patriotic struggle of the Chinese nation against imperialism," Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top advisory body, said at the gathering held in the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing.

Paying homage to the 650,000 Taiwan compatriots who sacrificed their lives in the fight against the Japanese, Jia said "their sacrifices testified to their Chinese identity" and called them "inalienable members of the Chinese nation."

In his article, Ma, the KMT chairman, noted that though Taiwan and the mainland were separated under the Japanese colonial rule, the "link of life" between the two sides of the Straits had never been cut off, and people on both sides had always supported each other to fight Japan's imperialism and colonialism.

Celebration activities for the Taiwan restoration anniversary actually began on both sides of the Straits as early as the last weekends. Seminars, exhibitions and forums were held in Beijing on Sunday and Monday to mark the occasion, while China Central Television presented a TV documentary featuring Taiwan people's resistance against Japanese occupation.

In Taipei, a firework show was staged on Saturday evening, attracting more than 100,000 spectators, while a cartoon exhibition featuring life in Taiwan under and after the Japanese colonial rule was to be held in a local library from Oct. 25 to Nov. 10.

China was forced to cede Taiwan, a piece of Chinese territory since ancient times, to Japan when it lost the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. The island province returned to China in 1945 following Japan's unconditional surrender in the World War II, and a formal restoration ceremony was held on Oct. 25 that year for the then KMT regime to accept the surrender of the Japanese forces in Taiwan.

But Taiwan was separated from the mainland again in 1949 when the KMT lost the civil war to the communists and fled to the island. With the secessionist Democratic Progressive Party coming to power in Taiwan and taking a series of provocative steps to seek "Taiwan independence," tensions have been growing across the Straits in recent years.

"Six decades ago, Taiwan already returned to China both in a legal sense and in a de facto sense," Jia stressed on Tuesday. "The legal status of Taiwan as an inalienable part of Chinese territory is not to be doubted or challenged."

Calling the "Taiwan independence" secessionist activities "the greatest menace and obstacle to a peaceful and steady development of cross-Straits relations" at present, Jia urged people on both sides of the Straits to "work hand in hand" and "strive hard for the peaceful reunification of the motherland and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

Parking not far from the Great Hall of the People, a Beijing taxi driver told Xinhua in a random interview that he often feels indignant with the secessionist activities and words of Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian.

"Though I didn't know Oct. 25 is the Taiwan recovery anniversary until today, I think it is really necessary to celebrate the day. It can help improve understandings across the Straits and make people on both sides feel closer to each other," said the driver, who claimed to have a relative living in Taiwan.

Political analysts here say the common celebration of the anniversary across the Straits indicates growing national cohesion among people on both sides of the Straits, as well as the people's common aspiration to check "Taiwan independence" adventures and safeguard cross-Straits peace and stability.