Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on the 8th held the first-ever commemoration event marking the end of World War II's European theater conflicts and delivered a speech. Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Chu Li-lun criticized Lai Ching-te's actions towards opposition parties, comparing them to what the late World War II Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler did. The German Institute in Taipei responded on the 7th, stating that today's Taiwan absolutely cannot be compared to the tyranny of National Socialism.
Chu Li-lun pointed out during a KMT central standing committee meeting on Wednesday that Japan, Germany, and Italy during World War II were all fascist regimes, with Germany's Hitler and Italy's late dictator Mussolini among them. They used the name of democracy to apply judicial means to eliminate the opposition parties and became dictators. What Lai Ching-te is doing to opposition parties today is essentially what Hitler did.
The German Institute in Taipei issued a statement expressing deep disappointment and concern over Chu Li-lun's remarks. It stated that any effort to compare the atrocities of the Nazi regime, or the atrocities that occurred in Germany and Europe between 1933 to 1945, with Taiwan's current political situation is disturbing. The institute believes that Taiwanese institutions cannot and should not be compared to the instruments of terror used by the Nazi regime. It urged KMT leadership to avoid making inappropriate and historically insensitive comparisons in domestic political discourse.
The statement emphasized that whether in Germany, Taiwan, or the international community, past memories should not be distorted for political purposes. Instead, there should be a collective effort to ensure that the crimes of the Nazi era are never forgotten, and to enhance historical awareness.