Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday said that he had — indirectly — asked former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) to reconsider attending Beijing’s military parade next week marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Hau, the former Taipei mayor and his party’s legislative candidate for Keelung, said the message was passed along with help from his father, former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村), who had asked a third party to deliver it.
He said his father had urged Lien, through “a certain communication channel,” not to attend the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) celebrations next week to commemorate China’s victory over Japan before the historical truth — that the KMT/Republic of China (ROC) was the mainstay of the force fighting Japan — has been reinstated in China.
As long as the Chinese government has not rectified its version of the history of the War of Resistance Against Japan, attending Beijing’s commemorative events would be tantamount to distorting historical facts and endorsing the CCP’s false interpretation of the history, Hau Lung-bin said.
Commemorating the war would be meaningful only if Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) leading role and the sacrifice of the ROC’s soldiers in the war were recognized, he said.
Neither he nor his father considered it appropriate to accept the CCP’s invitation to the celebrations, Hau Lung-bin said, adding that his father — a retired four-star army general and former chief of the general staff — had tried a month ago to discourage other retired brass and KMT politicians from going to Beijing as well.
Hau Pei-tsun told several retired generals that as their salaries were once paid by the ROC government, which is still paying their pensions, they should not go, because any former ROC military personnel who stood on a stage in Beijing to watch Thursday’s parade would compromise their soldier’s integrity.
“If you attend the CCP’s military parade, you should give up your pension,” Hau Lung-bin quoted his father as saying.
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said that he had also asked Lien not to attend the parade for the sake of the ROC’s dignity and because history “cannot be turned into ashes.”
“This is not to pressure anybody, but it is just that it concerns the integrity of the KMT and the ROC,” Wu said.
“Once you go, the truth of the resistance war is distorted,” Wu said.
The KMT harshly criticized former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) over comments that he made about the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), calling him a traitor to the ROC, so the KMT should hold Lien to the same standard and tell him not to go to Beijing, Wu said.
The Ministry of National Defense has also issued a statement urging retired military personnel not to attend next week’s events in Beijing to commemorate the anniversary.
The ministry said it had issued the appeal to protect the nation’s dignity and so that no one could question the veterans’ motives.
Beijing has reportedly sent invitation to several ROC veterans to attend a series of events marking the anniversary of the end of the war.
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