Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo Calls Beijing's 'Restoration' Commemorations Cognitive Warfare
Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said in Taipei on October 27 that Beijing was waging cognitive warfare after China marked the 81st anniversary of Japan's handover of Taiwan to the Republic of China government by releasing satellite images of Taipei and a military propaganda poster. Speaking to reporters at parliament, Koo stressed that the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949 and that the War of Resistance against Japan 'has absolutely nothing to do with the People's Republic of China — this is a clear, objective fact,' according to Reuters.
Japan took over Taiwan from China's Qing Dynasty in 1895 and ruled it until 1945, when it transferred the island to the Republic of China government; both Beijing and Taipei commemorate the event, now in its 81st year. On the anniversary on Sunday, China released high-resolution satellite pictures of Taipei, including the train station and the National Palace Museum, which holds a vast collection of treasures brought to Taiwan in 1949 when the Republic of China government fled there after losing a civil war to the communists. The Chinese military's Eastern Theatre Command also published a poster superimposing a map of Taiwan on images of fighter jets and warships, titled 'Remember the history of the restoration.'
Taiwan's military instead marked a different anniversary: the start of an unsuccessful late-October 1949 invasion attempt by the People's Liberation Army of Kinmen, islands next to the Chinese coast that remain under Taiwan's control. Koo said that date was much more worthy of remembering. 'This reminds us once again that China's determination to annex the Republic of China and Taiwan by force has never changed. We should be even more vigilant,' he said.
Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, while the democratically elected government in Taipei rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims. Neither government formally recognises the other, and their shared World War Two history is a frequent source of tension.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于台北的故宫博物院（资料图）。Jirka Matousek 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The National Palace Museum in Taipei (file photo). Photo by Jirka Matousek, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
