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Yuanyue Dang

Beijing has accused Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te of “glorifying Japanese colonial rule” in a recent speech.
The People’s Liberation Army also stepped up the number of sorties by aircraft around the island after Lai made the comments on Saturday at an event to mark the 30th anniversary of Taiwan’s first direct elections.
Lai, from the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, told the event that the early days of Kuomintang (KMT) rule over Taiwan under Chiang Kai-shek were “worse than [under] the Japanese colonial regime”.
Taiwan held its first direct top leadership election in 1996, after decades of martial law and single-party rule by the KMT.
In his speech, Lai also made comparisons with some of the island’s other rulers.
Apart from the Japanese, these included the Dutch and Spanish, and the mainland general Koxinga, also known as Zheng Chenggong, who made the island a base of resistance to the newly established Qing dynasty (1644-1911) – none of whom, Lai said, had ever really cared about Taiwan.
“Japan colonised Taiwan to promote the ‘Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere’,” Lai said, referring to the wartime plan to establish a pan-Asian economic bloc under Japanese colonial rule.
“And the KMT government’s arrival in Taiwan was merely a springboard for a counteroffensive against the mainland.
“After the KMT came to Taiwan [in 1949 after losing the civil war], the way it treated Taiwan’s people was worse than the Japanese treatment of Taiwan during colonial rule.”
Lai’s remark sparked fury from Beijing, as well as an outcry from the KMT, now the largest opposition party in Taiwan.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian on Wednesday lashed out at Lai for “blatantly using the aggressor’s lies to glorify Japan’s colonial rule over Taiwan”.
Lai’s remarks constituted “a grave desecration of history and a shameful betrayal of the nation”, Lin said.
“These remarks once again expose Lai Ching-te’s true nature of pandering to Japan, selling out Taiwan and plotting independence through provocation.”
Lin also accused Lai’s administration of “distorting history, whitewashing colonial atrocities and attempting to obstruct the inevitable trend of national reunification with a Taiwan independence historical perspective, only leading to its own destruction”.


Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China and has never renounced the use of force to reunite it with the mainland.
Most countries, including its main international partner the United States, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
Lai’s comments come at a time when relations between Beijing and Tokyo have taken a sharp downturn, after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in November that any attack on Taiwan could be viewed as an existential threat to Japan justifying military intervention.
In the same speech, Lai also said the establishment of direct elections “demonstrated that Taiwan is a sovereign, independent country”.
Lai is currently trying to get the opposition-controlled legislature to approve a special defence budget of NT$1.25 trillion (about US$40 billion) over eight years.
On Saturday, he said: “We must strengthen our defence budget” to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty, democratic system and economic achievements.
Later that day, Chen Binhua, a spokesman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, described Lai’s speech as a “confession” that exposed his “stubborn and unyielding” stance on independence.
Following Lai’s speech, the PLA significantly stepped up its aerial patrols near Taiwan.
The PLA had recently scaled back its aerial activities near the island – including a seven-day halt in late February and early March.
This was the longest pause since at least 2023, according to a tally by the South China Morning Post based on Taiwanese data.


Between 6am on Saturday and 6am on Sunday, Taiwan detected 26 sorties by PLA warplanes around the island.
This rose to 36 aircraft – the highest total in almost three weeks – between 6am on Tuesday and 6am on Wednesday – with 24 of them entering the island’s air defence identification zone.
Over the same period the following day, a further 12 sorties were detected.
Lai’s comments also triggered a backlash in Taiwan, especially from KMT members.
KMT vice-chairman Hsiao Hsu-tsen said on Monday that Lai’s comments showed he “sympathised with Japanese militarism” and was “no longer qualified” to serve as Taiwan’s leader.
Weng Hsiao-ling, a KMT legislator, said Lai “would rather be under Japanese colonial rule”, which raised questions “whether he is actually Taiwanese”.
Meanwhile, Taipei mayor Chiang Wan-an described colonialism and World War II as “wounds in the hearts of the Taiwanese people [and] the international community”, saying Lai “should not glorify any of this.”


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Diplomacy

Backlash was prompted by a speech that said the early days of the KMT’s rule over island were ‘worse than the colonial regime’


Backlash was prompted by a speech that said the early days of the KMT’s rule over island were ‘worse than the colonial regime’.


Japan

William Lai Ching-te

Kuomintang

Taiwan leader William Lai ‘glorifying Japanese colonial rule’, Beijing says

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Backlash was prompted by a speech that said the early days of the KMT’s rule over island were ‘worse than the colonial regime’

Backlash was prompted by a speech that said the early days of the KMT’s rule over island were ‘worse than the colonial regime’