China wants Taiwan to participate in commemorations later this year to mark the end of World War II, and also plans events commemorating the end of Japanese rule over the island, a Chinese government spokeswoman said today.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will oversee a military parade, reception and evening gala for the war anniversary, which is likely to be marked in September, and will invite leaders from major participants in the war, the foreign ministry has said though it has not said who.
After World War Two, Chinese communists and nationalists resumed a civil war that ended when nationalist forces withdrew to Taiwan in 1949. Though ruled separately, China claims Taiwan as its own, and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its rule.
"We welcome Taiwan compatriots to participate in memorial activities, and hope people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait can always remember history, cherish the memory of martyrs and rally together through war victory activities," she told reporters.
While China's ruling Communist Party never misses an opportunity to remind people of its struggle against the Japanese, a lot of the fighting was actually done by the forces of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government.
While the two have signed a series of landmark trade and economic deals since the China-friendly Ma Ying-jeou became president of Taiwan in 2008, there are still deep political and military suspicions, especially in proudly democratic Taiwan.
Nationalist Chinese rule post-1945 is thought of less positively by many Taiwanese, because of the long period of martial law it ushered in.
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