China accuses Taiwan of distorting World War II history

China has accused Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of distorting World War II history and “desecrating the martyrs.” The dispute centers on the historical legacy of China’s resistance against Japanese invasion.

Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office maintains that Communist forces were a central backbone of the resistance, particularly through guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. While acknowledging that Kuomintang forces fought on main battlefields, China emphasizes the role of Communist forces in the victory.

Conversely, Taiwan argues that the Republic of China—the government that fought alongside the Allies during the war before relocating to Taiwan in 1949—is the rightful successor to this wartime legacy, rather than the current People’s Republic of China. Zhang Han, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office, stated that questioning Beijing’s narrative is a “betrayal of history” and called for the victory to be jointly commemorated by people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.