Hu Heping, Executive Deputy Minister of China’s Central Propaganda Department, announced that around October 25, a conference will be held to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Taiwan’s retrocession. Overseas Chinese communities are encouraged to organize related commemorative activities locally. Analysts believe that Beijing will use this conference to assert its sovereignty over Taiwan.
Taiwan was ceded to Japan after the First Sino-Japanese War. On October 25, 1945, the Nationalist government’s troops accepted the surrender of Japanese forces and subsequently began ruling Taiwan, designating the following year this date as Taiwan Retrocession Day. On October 25 last year, on the 79th anniversary of 'Retrocession Day,' Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-te visited Kinmen to participate in the commemoration of the 'Guningtou Battle,' referring to it as the first major victory for the Nationalist army in stopping the Communist forces’ invasion and safeguarding peace in the Taiwan Strait.
Mainland China’s Taiwan Affairs Office criticized Lai Ching-te’s administration for adhering to a "Taiwan independence" separatist stance and for "downplaying and denying" the historical significance of Taiwan’s retrocession.