The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is to step up its commemorative events marking the 80th Anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, in an apparent move to rally the party’s support base.
The incident refers to a battle between KMT forces and the Imperial Japanese Army that started on July 7, 1937, which sparked the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Starting today, KMT Acting Chairperson Lin Jung-tzer (林政則) is scheduled to chair a two-day academic conference on the history of the war.
The conference, at which KMT chairman-elect Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) are expected to make appearances, was organized under the instruction of former KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) before she stepped down on June 30.
Wu and Ma are also scheduled to appear at an event organized by the KMT’s Taipei chapter to commemorate the war, which is also to begin today.
Following the contentious KMT chairmanship election, Wu appears eager to use the incident’s anniversary as an opportunity to project an image of party unity.
At an event held by the Chong Shing Elites of the Kuomintang last month, Wu said the anniversary of the incident should mark “a new beginning for the KMT.”
The incident was “important to the KMT’s glorious liberation of Taiwan,” he said, adding that events should be stepped up to recognize the contributions and importance of the Republic of China’s armed forces.
“Without the War of Resistance that began on July 7, there would be no freedom or democracy in Taiwan,” KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said yesterday.
Three former ministers of national defense are scheduled to attend the KMT’s Taipei chapter event alongside 19 war heroes, he said.
Asked about former premier Hau Pei-tsun’s (郝柏村) attendance at a conference in Nanjing about China’s role in World War II, Hung Meng-kai said that Hau “has the right to exercise his freedom of movement, and it is not the KMT’s place to comment.”
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