TAIPEI: Taiwan President Lai Ching-te criticized strongmen personality cults and secret police networks on Wednesday, as Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted the leaders of Russia and North Korea at a military parade marking the end of World War Two.
Democratically-governed Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory, has repeatedly lambasted China for what Taipei sees as a distorted view of the war, as the Republic of China was the government at the time, fighting alongside the Allies.
The Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists and retains the formal name to this day.
Writing on his Facebook page to mark Armed Forces Day in Taiwan, Lai said republican general Hsu Yung-chang signed the Japan surrender on behalf of China, calling it “gratifying” that the former Axis powers had all become democracies since.
“The definition of fascism is broad,” Lai wrote.
