By Ben Blanchard
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Aggression only leads to defeat and as authoritarianism once again gathers strength, it is important that freedom and democracy prevail, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Friday marking the end of World War Two, in a pointed message to Beijing.
Taiwan has this year sought to cast the war as a lesson to China, which views the democratic island as its own territory, to show how aggression will end in failure, and to remind the world it was not the government now in Beijing that won the war.
The Chinese government at the time was the Republic of China, part of the U.S., British and Russian-led alliance, and its forces did much of the fighting against Japan, putting on pause a bitter civil war with Mao Zedong’s Communists whose military also fought the Japanese.
The republican government then fled to Taiwan in 1949 after finally being defeated by Mao, and Republic of China remains the democratic island’s official name.
Late on Thursday, Taiwan said it had banned government officials from attending next month’s military parade planned by Beijing to mark the end of World War Two, along with former senior defence, intelligence and diplomatic officials, though that does not include ordinary members of the public.
If former officials insist on going, penalties would include the revocation of pensions, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Office said.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a post on his Facebook account that did not directly mention China, Lai said the war served as a stark reminder to the world that peace is priceless and war has no winners.
“World War Two was a catastrophe in history, triggered by the personal ambitions of a few dictators, extreme ideologies and military expansionism,” he wrote.
Today, people in Taiwan take freedom, democracy, peace and prosperity for granted, but lessons from history must be learned, Lai added.
“The most valuable lesson of World War Two is that unity leads to victory, while aggression leads to defeat.”
China labels Lai a “separatist”, and has ramped up military activities around the island, including holding large-scale war games. Lai rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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