President Xi Jinping has called on the people of China’s mainland and Taiwan to unite to maintain peace, during a meeting with a Taiwanese political delegation who are in Beijing to attend events for the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The report said that Lien Chan, former chairman of Taiwan's Kuomintang Party, and other Taiwan officials were invited to see the military parade and other activities that will be held to commemorate the WWII anniversary and victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Both forces of the Communist Party and the KMT fought together in the War of Resistance. But the KMT was defeated during the civil war and fled to Taiwan.
According to Xi, the victory in the war against Japan invasion was "China's first complete victory against foreign invasion in modern times," which was only made possible because of the efforts of the entire nation, including Taiwan.
Xi said that an "unprecedented national awareness" was roused when Japan invaded northeast China on Sept. 18, 1931, and launched its full-scale invasion on July 7, 1937.
"At the critical moment, the Chinese rose to fight bitterly with the Japanese militarist invaders," Xi added.
To establish a united front against Japan and to safeguard state sovereignty and national dignity, the Communist Party of China and the KMT joined forces, Xi explained.
"Both the front line and the battlefield behind enemy lines closely coordinated with each other and made important contributions to the victory," Xi said.
Xi furthered that the struggle against Japanese invasion was an important part of the entire struggle of the Chinese and Taiwan citizens that share a common destiny with their motherland.
When Japan occupied Taiwan, the people in the island never stopped fighting, and hundreds of thousands of Taiwan people lost their lives, Xi added.