Taiwan pushes back on Beijing over WWII history: ‘The Republic of China was America’s steadfast ally’

Taiwan is pushing back against what it calls Beijing’s attempt to rewrite the history of World War II, after Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump highlighted their countries’ alliance during the war at last week’s summit in Washington, according to Reuters. At Thursday’s state dinner, Xi and Trump praised how their countries fought together in the war; a White House fact sheet said both recalled that the U.S. and China “were allies in World War II and fought side by side to win the war.”

Taiwan’s democratic government — which Beijing claims as its own territory — says Beijing’s version is distorted: the government that fought alongside the Allies was the Republic of China, which relocated to Taiwan in 1949 after the civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists and still formally bears that name today. Beijing, for its part, says communist guerrilla forces were the “backbone” of the war in China, while its official history barely mentions republican forces.

Shen Yu-chung, deputy director of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council — the island’s policymaker for China — said Xi was “constantly trying to steer the historical narrative of World War II under the leadership of the People’s Republic of China.” He added that Taiwan will continue to convey to Washington the message that “throughout the entire process of World War II, the Republic of China was America’s steadfast ally.”

Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Francois Wu said Beijing wanted to erase “the true history”: “China is trying to replace the role of the Republic of China during World War II… this is something we should feel very sad about.” Meanwhile, associate professor Chen Fang-yu of Soochow University in Taipei said Sunday at a forum in the capital that Taiwan faces “the Chinese communists’ vast propaganda resources and their continuous efforts with various tools to brainwash and influence American public opinion.”

Even within Taiwan the war’s legacy remains contested — the island was a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945. The opposition KMT, the party that ruled the Republic of China during the war, said President Lai Ching-te’s government brings up “the 1945 Republic of China” only when it needs it to confront Beijing and compete for the narrative. The White House, the State Department and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to requests for comment.