Taiwan Official Questions China’s Spending Billions on Military Parade

TAIPEI, Taiwan—The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is spending more than $5 billion to commemorate a war victory in which it played only a minimal role, a Taiwanese government official said on Sept. 1, two days before Chinese leader Xi Jinping was set to oversee a military parade marking the anniversary.

Shen Yu-chung, deputy minister at Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, a government agency that handles China-related issues, said that Beijing’s military parade, scheduled to be held on Sept. 3 to celebrate Japan’s defeat in the Second Sino-Japanese War, would effectively cost more than 36 billion yuan ($5 billion).

“They are willing to spend more than NT$150 billion to hold a military exercise while neglecting China’s economic, labor, and social issues,” Shen said at an academic seminar in Taipei about the military parade. “I wonder what the Chinese people think about this situation.”

Shen’s price tag estimate matches the figure reported in August by Taiwan’s government-run Central News Agency, which cited unnamed Taiwanese national security officials. The outlet reported that the 36-billion-yuan total included government subsidies for factories, construction sites, and other businesses in Beijing that were forced to shut down before and during the parade.

The Second Sino-Japanese War started in 1937, predating the start of World War II by two years. Japan surrendered to Allied forces in August 1945, and the surrender document was signed aboard the USS Missouri in Japan’s Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945.

The Chinese Nationalist government, officially known as the Republic of China (ROC), led the fight against the invading Japanese military during the Second Sino-Japanese War, while the CCP forces also engaged in resistance efforts.

In 1949, while fighting a civil war with the CCP, the ROC government retreated to Taiwan. That same year, the CCP established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland.

Both Taiwan and mainland China commemorate the victory over Japan on Sept. 3.

Shen criticized Beijing for holding the parade on Wednesday, calling it “absurd” from historical, political, and legal perspectives.

“We all know the CCP made no contribution to the war; it only exploited the war for its own development,” he said. “When the Republic of China was fighting Japan, the People’s Republic of China did not even exist.”

Shen pointed out that by looking at the number of casualties suffered by both the nationalist and communist forces, it becomes clear which side was truly engaged in fighting off the Japanese troops.

According to data from Taiwan’s defense ministry, more than 3 million officers and soldiers from the nationalist forces died during the eight-year war. The Epoch Times could not obtain information on the number of casualties from the communist side.

Shen stated that the Chinese regime aims to use the parade to showcase its military strength in order to enhance its influence in regional and global discourse.

“By using the military parade to stand with authoritarian states like Russia, Iran, and North Korea, [the CCP] is shaping a world order that is in opposition to the democratic camp of the United States and Europe,” he said.

Also on Sept. 1, Eric Chu, chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the Nationalist Party, told reporters that while the communists “took part” in the war, it had been led by the ROC and his party.

“This history is very clear and cannot be distorted,” Chu said.

On Sept. 2, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te told officers at the defense ministry that aggression will fail, pointing to Taiwan’s victories against Chinese communist forces in 1958 during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis.

“We all know that the current security environment is more severe than ever before. In recent years, the Chinese communists have persistently conducted high-intensity activities with military aircraft and vessels around the Taiwan Strait,” Lai said.

The CCP has never ruled Taiwan but claims it as a breakaway province, vowing to seize the island by force if necessary. In practice, however, Taiwan is a de facto independent nation with its own democratically elected government, constitution, and military.