Taiwan slams China military parade attended by ex-premiers Carr, Andrews
Former premiers Bob Carr and Daniel Andrews face mounting pressure to boycott a Chinese military parade that Taiwan warns undermines its sovereignty.
Taiwanese diplomats have branded a Chinese military parade spruiking the attendance of former Australian premiers Bob Carr and Daniel Andrews a “deliberate distortion of wartime history” used to erode the self-governing island’s sovereignty.
Taiwan’s top envoys to Australia said while they “fully respect” individuals who choose to attend the Victory Day commemoration in Beijing, the event was a “clear attempt to advance (China’s) contemporary territorial claims over Taiwan”.
The warning comes after Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hong Lei announced the former Victorian and NSW premiers would be attending a parade on Wednesday commemorating 80 years since the end of China’s war with Japan, where President Xi Jinping will appear beside North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The news split China hawks and doves inside the Labor Party, as the Albanese government recovers from the souring of relations under the Morrison government while advocating against brazen human rights offences and territorial agitation by the eastern superpower.
“(The) Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia takes note of the attendance of former Victorian premier Dan Andrews and former NSW premier Bob Carr in Beijing,” a spokesperson for Taiwan’s diplomatic delegation said. “We fully respect the decisions taken by individuals. However, we must point out Beijing’s deliberate distortion of wartime history in an attempt to advance its contemporary territorial claims over Taiwan.
“Beijing’s narrative deliberately ignores that Taiwan was placed under the administration of the Republic of China in 1945, four years before the People’s Republic of China even existed. The PRC has never governed Taiwan.
“Taiwan today is home to 23 million people who have built a vibrant democracy of their own. That reality cannot be erased by distorted historical narratives.”
Foreign policy experts have warned Mr Andrews, who has stayed silent on his attendance, and Mr Carr, who confirmed his travel plans, that they risk becoming “organs of the Chinese propaganda machine”.
Leaders from 26 countries will attend the military parade, but Western leaders are conspicuously absent, with China instead leaning towards the global south after securing its largest-ever global engagement with the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation summit this week.
Mr Andrews faced widespread scrutiny over his decision to sign Victoria up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, before it was vetoed by the Morrison government.
Mr Carr told The Australian on Friday he was attending the event in order to mark China and Australia’s shared military history during World War II. Mr Carr led the Australia-China Relations Institute from 2014-19 and will address the Chinese Institute of International Relations while in Beijing.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was not consulted on the attendance plans of Australians outside government. It will have a small delegation at Wednesday’s event.
China’s conflict with Japan occurred against the backdrop of Mao Zedong’s Communist revolution against the Nationalist government of the Guomindang – with the GMD left to handle the vast majority of the war effort and incur the bulk of casualties, which numbered in the millions.
Four years after the Japanese surrender, GMD leader Chiang Kai-shek fled China for Taiwan and the CCP formed government in Beijing.
In The Australian last month, Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian invoked this history by recalling China and Australia fighting “side by side” against the Japanese to declare “Taiwan’s return to China must not be denied”.
Speaking from the SCO on Monday, Putin accused Western leaders of historical revisionism.
“Historical truth is being distorted and suppressed to suit their current political agendas,” he said. “Japanese militarism is being revived under the pretext of imaginary Russian or Chinese threats, while in Europe, including Germany, steps are being taken towards the remilitarisation of the continent, with little regard for historical parallels.”
Former US ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser John Bolton wrote in the Australian Financial Review on Monday, making a public appeal for Mr Andrews and Mr Carr to boycott the event.
“Andrews and Carr should reconsider their decisions to attend, as should other present or former officials of the very nations China and its allies threaten. That is not too much to ask,” he wrote.
“Legitimising the Communist view of World War II strengthens Xi Jinping’s regime internationally and with China’s own population. Domestically, it enhances Xi’s ability to stifle internal dissent not just about history, but also about current policy issues.
“We currently see a lot of rewriting of history under way, some of it in democracies, but that is no warrant to legitimise what Beijing has attempted to do with this and prior commemorations involving World War II, and much more.”
The Chinese embassy in Australia was contacted for comment.
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