MAC criticizes KMT's Cheng for echoing CCP narrative during China trip

Taipei, April 9 (CNA) Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) urged Kuomintang (KMT) Chairperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) not to echo the Chinese side's narrative after remarks she made about Dr. Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) in Nanjing during her ongoing visit to China.

"Visiting the mainland is one thing, but she should not go there and echo the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) narrative -- that would put Taiwan in a very dangerous position," MAC deputy head and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a regular news briefing in Taipei.

He claimed that Taiwanese people are not concerned about Japanese militarism from a century ago, but about present-day China and the CCP's authoritarian rule.

Liang was commenting on remarks Cheng made on Wednesday after paying tribute to Sun at his mausoleum in Nanjing during her ongoing six-day visit to China.

In her remarks, Cheng said that four months before his death in March 1925, Sun -- the founding father of the Republic of China (Taiwan's official name) -- advanced a vision of Pan-Asianism distinct from the version Japan promoted to mask its "expansionist ambitions."

She said Sun advocated raising the status of Asia's weaker nations through a federation of Asian peoples and called on Japan not to serve as "a lackey of domineering Western culture," but to "treat the weaker peoples in its colonies well."

"These ideas were immediately met with an enthusiastic response and strong support in Taiwan," she added.

Cheng, leader of Taiwan's main opposition party, also criticized Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan, which lasted from 1895 to 1945 -- beginning after the First Sino-Japanese War and ending with Japan's defeat in World War II.

"To this day, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait remain unable to heal the wound carved across the Strait by the blade of Japanese imperialism during the First Sino-Japanese War 130 years ago," she said.

Liang argued that Cheng portrayed Sun as a leader opposed to Japanese militarism and framed cross-strait issues as problems left over from the First Sino-Japanese War, which he said was "quite surprising."

Given Sun's close ties with Japan during his revolutionary career, including founding the "Tongmenghui" (同盟會) in Tokyo, which helped overthrow the Qing dynasty, Liang said portraying Sun as a leader who fought against Japanese militarism and colonialism is "a major distortion of history."

He speculated that Cheng's purpose in making such remarks was to "shape a historical narrative" by portraying Taiwan's current situation as a problem left behind by Japanese militarism, a framing he said that aligned with CCP propaganda.

The CCP has also portrayed Taiwanese opposition to unification as a result of "Japanization" and deeply rooted pro-Japan sentiment, Liang said

"If a Taiwanese political party leader echoes that narrative, it basically amounts to taking the CCP's side," he claimed.

While Cheng and Liang have taken sharply different views of Sun's stance toward Japanese militarism, Sun is revered by many Chinese and Taiwanese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait for helping overthrow the Qing dynasty.

Thursday marked the third day of Cheng's visit to China, with local media reporting that she is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who also serves as general secretary of the CCP, in Beijing on Friday.