TAIPEI: Taiwan accused China on Monday (Sep 1) of squandering the equivalent of 2 per cent of its entire defence budget to commemorate the end of World War II as this year’s 80th anniversary fuels a bitter battle of narratives between Beijing and Taipei.
The war was preceded by Japan’s takeover of China’s northeastern region of Manchuria in 1931 and invasion of the rest of China in 1937.
Taiwan says China’s ruling Communist Party is falsely claiming credit for leading the fighting when most of it was done by forces of what was then the Republic of China.
The Republic’s government fled to Taiwan in 1949, after losing a civil war, and the island retains Republic of China as its formal name.
Speaking in Taipei at an academic seminar on the war, Shen Yu-chung, a deputy minister at Taiwan’s China-policy-making Mainland Affairs Council, said Beijing’s parade, which President Xi Jinping will oversee on Wednesday, would in effect cost more than 36 billion yuan (US$5 billion).
This compares to China’s 2025 defence budget of around US$249 billion.
“They are willing to spend over NT$150 billion to hold a military exercise while neglecting China’s internal economic, labour, and social issues,” he said. “I wonder what the Chinese people think about this situation.”
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/taiwan-flags-huge-cost-chinas-military-parade-growing-war-words-5326701
