Avoid Chinese SYS events: MAC
By Ben Blanchard / Reuters
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has recommended that Taiwanese avoid events in China next month for the anniversary of the birth of Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), lauded by Taipei and Beijing for bringing an end to the last imperial dynasty, and a major historical fault line.
China announced last year that it would honor the 160th birthday of Sun on Nov. 12. Sun died in 1925 after helping to lead the 1911 revolution that ended centuries of rule by emperors and empresses.
Sun founded the Republic of China (ROC), which fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) Chinese communists, and which remains Taiwan’s formal name. In a statement on Thursday, the MAC said people should not travel to China for anniversary events and “echo the Chinese communists’ narratives.”
People’s Republic of China flags flutter outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in an undated photograph.
Photo: Reuters
China’s interpretation of Sun “does not stay faithful to historical fact... It uses these commemorations to promote a narrative of ‘opposing Taiwan independence and promoting unification,’” the council said.
Beijing says Sun is a national hero and patriot, as well as the forerunner of China’s 1949 revolution. China has not announced what events it has planned for the anniversary.
In 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) said Sun opposed attempts to “split the country,” adding that the “complete reunification of the motherland” was a sacred duty for all Chinese.
In Taiwan, Sun is officially called the “father of the ROC” and his portrait hangs in the Presidential Office, although his political philosophy the “Three Principles of the People” is no longer a required school text for children.
While President William Lai (賴清德) and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party champion Taiwan’s separate identity from China, they have been striking a tougher tone with Beijing on the role of the ROC.
Taiwan’s government has demonstrated irritation with Beijing’s attempts to claim credit for the Allied victory in World War II, saying it was the ROC government that fought with the Allies against Japan, as the People’s Republic of China did not exist then.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.