Taiwanese military personnel and officials from Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense and Mainland Affairs Council have accused the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of using Oct. 25, known as “Taiwan Retrocession Day,” to advance its claims over the self-governing island.
They say Beijing is attempting to undermine the Republic of China’s (ROC) sovereignty through a combination of “legal warfare” and “cognitive warfare,” while creating division and confrontation within Taiwan.
Taiwan military: CCP uses retrocession anniversary for political maneuvering
Oct. 25 marks the date in 1945 when the ROC government took over the administration of Taiwan following Japan’s defeat in World War II, ending 50 years of Japanese colonial rule. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) was not established until 1949 and has never governed Taiwan, a distinction at the heart of the competing interpretations of the anniversary.
According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency, military sources said on Oct. 25 that the CCP has continued to use the historical date of “Taiwan’s retrocession” for political manipulation and what they described as a distorted historical narrative. In 2025, the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress designated Oct. 25 as an annual “Commemoration Day of Taiwan’s Restoration,” a move Taiwanese officials said attempted to give Beijing’s position a legal veneer.
The military sources said Beijing’s combination of “legal warfare” and “cognitive warfare” serves three purposes: to “fabricate the appearance that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China while deliberately ignoring the objective fact of the Republic of China’s sovereignty and independence”; to “erase the Taiwanese people’s right to choose a democratic system”; and to “create division and confrontation within Taiwan.”
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Beijing rejects Taiwan’s position. At an Oct. 25 commemorative event, Song Tao, head of the PRC’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said the anniversary reflected China’s “firm confidence in defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” according to the South China Morning Post. Beijing maintains that Taiwan is part of China and has not ruled out using force to bring it under its control.
Mainland Affairs Council: CCP has no right to commemorate Taiwan’s retrocession
Military sources noted that the Ministry of National Defense-affiliated Youth Daily News and Han Sheng Broadcasting Station posted Facebook videos featuring an interview with Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung. Shen said the events of Oct. 25, 1945, involved the ROC government, not the PRC, which did not yet exist. In his view, when the CCP talks about “retrocession,” what it really has in mind is “annexation.”
Shen also pointed to Oct. 25, 1949, when ROC forces achieved a major victory over Communist troops at the Battle of Guningtou on Kinmen. He said Nationalist troops fought and shed blood to repel Communist forces, helping lay the foundation for decades of peace and development in Taiwan.
Another Oct. 25 anniversary came in 1971, when the United Nations adopted General Assembly Resolution 2758, recognizing the PRC’s representatives as the representatives of China at the United Nations and removing the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek. The resolution does not expressly address Taiwan’s sovereignty. Taiwanese officials accuse Beijing of misusing it to claim that the United Nations settled Taiwan’s status in the PRC’s favor.
Military sources said the most effective response to the CCP’s use of historical anniversaries in cognitive warfare is to “restore the truth of history” and “strengthen information literacy.” They called on Taiwanese people to remain confident in their democracy rather than allow authoritarian rhetoric to undermine that confidence.
Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo echoed the criticism on Oct. 27 after Chinese authorities released satellite images of Taipei and a military poster to mark the anniversary. “We must stress that the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949,” Koo said, according to Reuters. “The War of Resistance has absolutely nothing to do with the People’s Republic of China. This is a clear, objective fact.”
Security official: Beijing seeks to reinforce its legal narrative on Taiwan
Taiwanese national security officials have also warned that Beijing is connecting Taiwan Retrocession Day with its planned Nov. 12 commemoration of Sun Yat-sen’s birth to strengthen the PRC’s account of Chinese history. According to reports by Central News Agency and TaiSounds, Beijing previously marked the Oct. 25 anniversary chiefly in years ending in five or zero, but made it an annual commemoration in 2025.
Beijing calls the forthcoming Sun Yat-sen ceremony the “160th anniversary” of his birth. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council has challenged that designation, saying it counts 2026 as the 161st anniversary and held a 160th-anniversary commemoration in 2025. The council has also warned Taiwanese citizens against participating in Beijing’s event, describing it as a potential instrument of united front political influence.
A Taiwanese national security official said Xi Jinping was expected to attend the Nov. 12 event, at which Beijing could portray Sun as having devoted his life to promoting Chinese reunification. The official argued that such a message would overlook the central goal of Sun’s revolutionary efforts: overthrowing the imperial system and establishing a republican political system.
The official said the CCP not only claims that Taiwan has “belonged to China since ancient times,” but has promoted similar historical arguments concerning Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands, as well as the Philippines’ Batan Islands. In the official’s assessment, these narratives are intended not simply to commemorate history but to build support for annexing Taiwan and increasing Beijing’s strategic influence along the First Island Chain.
The official identified three objectives. First, Beijing seeks to strengthen its legal narrative by depicting Taiwan’s retrocession as part of the “legal chain” supporting its one-China principle. Second, it seeks to control the interpretation of postwar history by linking Taiwan Retrocession Day with Sun Yat-sen’s birthday. Third, it seeks to create the appearance that the PRC inherited the political and historical legacy of the ROC, even though the PRC was founded in 1949.
The official also questioned the CCP’s use of the terms “liberation” and “retrocession.” If people do not gain freedom, democracy and the right to govern themselves after a change in political power, the official argued, Beijing’s use of these terms is inherently contradictory.
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