Lai to preside over Whampoa Military Academy centennial celebrations

Taipei, June 13 (CNA) President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) will preside over a round of celebrations to be staged on Sunday at the Republic of China (ROC) Military Academy to mark the 100th anniversary of its founding, the nation's armed forces announced on Thursday.

To mark the academy's centennial, the Kaohsiung-based academy will hold its main celebrations on the morning of Sunday June 16 with a large-scale military march featuring military cadets, Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) said at a defense ministry news briefing.

Along with these cadets, ROC Military Academy honor graduates will be dressed in a range of the academy's former uniforms, including those worn when the academy was based in mainland China, to pay tribute to its roots and 100 years of tradition, Chen said.

President Lai will preside over the celebrations at the Kaohsiung academy. Special guests, including former ROC Military Academy superintendents, ex-defense ministers, representatives from military academies in allied countries, and others, will also attend, Chen added.

The academy will hold an open-house event in the afternoon featuring a series of exhibitions on its history and achievements over the past century, Chen said.

Previously known as Whampoa Military Academy, the military educational institute was founded on June 16, 1924 in Whampoa -- also known as Huangpu, Guangzhou, in China's Guangdong province -- when the ROC government was still based in mainland China.

The academy later relocated to Nanjing, Chengdu in the mainland. At the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, together with the ROC government, the academy relocated to Taiwan.

It reopened in 1950 in southern Kaohsiung's Fongshan District under the name of the ROC Military Academy. The original Guangzhou site is now a museum.

Its first superintendent was Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who later became ROC president.