Beijing Plans Taiwan Retrocession Anniversary as Taipei Rejects Its Historical Claim

An October 25 ceremony puts competing histories in focus

China plans to mark 80 years since Taiwan's 1945 handover from Japanese rule with a ceremony at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, while Taiwan's government has barred officials, students and teachers from attending Chinese events connected to the anniversary. The dispute turns on a central question: which government received Taiwan in 1945, and what that means for the island today.

Diplomatic sources familiar with the preparations say the ceremony is scheduled for Saturday morning, October 25, 2025. Invitations have gone to people in Taiwan. As of October 22, Beijing has not publicly announced the final agenda, the full list of speakers or which senior leaders will attend.

Beijing calls the anniversary Taiwan retrocession, a term meaning the return of territory to a previous governing authority. Chinese officials present the occasion as part of the victory over Japan in World War Two and as confirmation that Taiwan belongs to China.

Taipei rejects the connection Beijing draws between the handover and the People's Republic of China. Taiwan's government says Japan surrendered the island to the Republic of China, the government that remains in Taipei today. The People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, four years after the surrender, following the civil war on the mainland.

The anniversary falls within a wider series of Chinese commemorations marking 80 years since the end of World War Two. For Beijing, those events link wartime victory, national unity and the international order established after the war. For Taipei, the October ceremony is an attempt to use that history to support a political claim over Taiwan.

How Taiwan passed from Japanese to Chinese administration

Taiwan came under Japanese rule after Qing China lost the First Sino Japanese War and ceded the island under the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki. Japan governed Taiwan for 50 years, developing infrastructure and administration while imposing colonial controls.

World War Two changed the island's future. Allied leaders issued the Cairo Declaration in 1943, stating that territories Japan had taken from China, including Taiwan, should be returned after Japan's defeat. The Potsdam Declaration reaffirmed those terms in 1945.

Following Japan's surrender, General Douglas MacArthur's General Order No. 1 directed Japanese forces in Taiwan to surrender to representatives of the Republic of China. On October 25, 1945, Japanese Governor General Rikichi Ando handed authority in Taipei to Chen Yi, the Republic of China's envoy.

The Republic of China organized Taiwan as a province and declared October 25 Retrocession Day. For people living on the island, the change brought political, social and economic adjustments under the new administration.

The United States and the United Kingdom treated the handover at the time as a transfer of administrative control pending a formal peace treaty. That distinction helps explain the later legal debate: administering a territory means running its government, while sovereignty concerns the legal authority claimed over it.

Beijing presents the anniversary as a shared victory

China's Taiwan Affairs Office describes retrocession as an achievement shared by all Chinese people, including those in Taiwan. Beijing argues that the wartime outcome and the settlement that followed establish Taiwan's place within a greater Chinese nation as a matter of history and law.

Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office, has presented the commemoration as a unifying occasion and confirmed that participants from Taiwan would be invited. Her statement described the anniversary this way:

Zhu Fenglian said the retrocession was a significant achievement of victory in the War of Resistance and that it deserves to be commemorated by people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing regards itself as the successor to the Republic of China and maintains that Taiwan's fate was settled in 1945. Its position connects the wartime transfer to the authority claimed today by the People's Republic of China.

Taipei disputes that connection. The Republic of China, it says, continues to exist and never ceded its sovereignty. The disagreement is therefore about more than the events of October 1945: it also concerns which government can claim the political and legal legacy of those events.

Taipei bars attendance and accuses Beijing of manipulation

Taiwan's government says the Republic of China fought Imperial Japan alongside the Allies and accepted Japan's surrender in 1945. It argues that Beijing's commemoration recasts that history around a state that had yet to be founded.

Chiu Chui-cheng, head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, accused Beijing of political manipulation and warned that attendance could support a narrative that removes the Republic of China from the story. His comments set out Taipei's objection:

Chiu Chui-cheng said Beijing has repeatedly fabricated false narratives and that in events related to retrocession it has sought to concoct the claim that Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China. He added that the ultimate goal is to eliminate the Republic of China and annex Taiwan.

Taipei's attendance ban covers central and local government officials, students and teachers. Authorities have also urged the wider public to refrain from joining the events, saying participation would give legitimacy to a narrative Taiwan's government rejects.

Beijing has accused Taiwan's government of intimidating Taiwanese people to discourage them from attending and of distorting history. The exchange reflects the broader freeze in formal contacts and growing mistrust across the Taiwan Strait.

For invited people in Taiwan, the dispute turns a commemorative visit into a politically sensitive choice. Beijing presents participation as recognition of a shared wartime achievement. Taipei views it as support for a claim that threatens the Republic of China's continued existence.

Why the peace treaties remain central to the dispute

October 25, 1945 is widely remembered as the date Japanese authorities in Taiwan surrendered to the Republic of China. Lawyers and historians continue to debate whether that handover restored sovereignty immediately or transferred administrative control while a peace treaty was still pending.

The San Francisco Peace Treaty, signed in 1951, required Japan to renounce sovereignty over Taiwan without naming a recipient state. The absence of a named recipient has sustained disputes about the island's final legal status in the years immediately after the war.

The Republic of China and Japan signed the Treaty of Taipei in 1952. It reaffirmed Japan's renunciation of Taiwan and recognized the wartime declarations that Taiwan would return to China. Taipei regards the agreement as confirmation of the earlier transfer.

Beijing rejects the San Francisco treaty as invalid because it was not a party to it. It also cites its status as the internationally recognized government of China after 1949 to claim succession to Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan.

The two governments therefore use different routes to explain their authority. Taipei points to the Republic of China's role in accepting the surrender and its continued existence. Beijing argues that its succession to the government of China carries the claim to Taiwan with it.

What the United Nations decision changed

United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 added another layer to the dispute in 1971, when China's UN seat passed from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China. Representation at the UN concerns which government occupies a country's seat and speaks for it within the organization.

Beijing maintains that the resolution affirms its representation of China and, by extension, Taiwan's place within China. Taiwan and many legal scholars argue that the resolution addressed who held China's seat, while Taiwan's sovereignty was a separate question.

The resolution transferred UN representation without adjudicating Taiwan's sovereignty. The disagreement over how to interpret it sits alongside the arguments over the surrender and peace treaties, helping explain why an anniversary ceremony attracts scrutiny far beyond historical remembrance.

The sequence stretches across more than a century:

• 1895: Qing China ceded Taiwan to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki after losing the First Sino Japanese War.
• 1943: The Cairo Declaration stated that territories taken from China, including Taiwan, should be returned after Japan's defeat.
• 1945: The Potsdam Declaration reaffirmed those terms, and Japanese authorities in Taiwan surrendered to the Republic of China on October 25.
• 1949: The People's Republic of China was founded after the civil war on the mainland.
• 1951: Japan renounced sovereignty over Taiwan in the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which named no recipient state.
• 1952: The Republic of China and Japan signed the Treaty of Taipei.
• 1971: UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 transferred China's UN seat from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China.
• October 25, 2025: Beijing's planned ceremony will mark 80 years since the handover.

Three anniversaries meet a year of pressure

Taiwanese officials say Beijing is using three anniversaries in 2025 to promote its interpretation of the postwar order: 80 years since the end of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the founding of the United Nations and Taiwan retrocession.

In Taipei's assessment, Beijing wants domestic and international audiences to see the settlement after World War Two as confirmation that Taiwan belongs to China. Invitations to prominent Taiwanese figures are part of that effort, Taiwanese officials argue, because participation can be presented as endorsement.

Chinese officials previewed large commemorations during the year, including a major military parade in September to mark the Allied victory in World War Two. The October event places Taiwan more directly at the center of that commemorative calendar.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council has also cataloged pressure on the island during 2025. Its list includes encirclement drills by the People's Liberation Army, new legal strategies and rhetoric targeting supporters of Taiwan independence, and arrest warrants against serving or former Taiwanese military personnel.

The council also cited changes to civilian flight routes closer to the Taiwan Strait's median line and export restrictions aimed at groups Beijing labels as independence entities. Together, those measures span military activity, legal pressure, aviation and trade.

Taipei has responded with measures it says are intended to protect national security and counter political and information operations directed at Taiwan. Against that backdrop, officials regard the commemoration as one part of a wider contest over the island's position, rather than an isolated anniversary event.

The Great Hall ceremony has a precedent

Beijing held a comparable commemoration in 2015, when Yu Zhengsheng, then China's fourth ranked leader, delivered a speech. Foreign representatives also attended, giving the event an audience beyond China and Taiwan.

The 2025 ceremony is expected to return to the Great Hall of the People on Retrocession Day. The precedent helps explain attention to the level of leadership representation and the guest list: both can indicate how Beijing intends to present the anniversary domestically and internationally.

Invitations to individuals in Taiwan have already become a point of conflict because Taipei's restrictions directly affect who can take part. Beijing's invitation and Taiwan's warning attach opposing political meanings to the same act of attendance.

The next scheduled milestone is Saturday morning, October 25. Until then, the dispute centers on the historical message Beijing plans to deliver and Taipei's effort to prevent that message from drawing support through Taiwanese participation.

Taipei's Pride weekend offers a different public gathering

Taipei is also preparing to host East Asia's largest Pride march during the same weekend as Beijing's planned ceremony. The celebration of equality and diversity draws participants from across the region.

Taiwan legalized same sex marriage in 2019 and has become a focal point for LGBTQ rights in Asia. Taiwanese officials view the Pride celebration as a marker of democratic development, with inclusion and public expression at the center of the gathering.

The march and the Beijing commemoration are unrelated, but their timing places two different expressions of identity alongside each other. Taipei's civil society will be gathering around equality and diversity, while Beijing's ceremony will focus on wartime history, national unity and the state's account of the postwar order.

Both events carry meaning for how communities describe themselves. Their coincidence adds a social dimension to a weekend already shaped by a dispute over political identity and historical memory across the strait.

Why the dispute matters beyond Beijing and Taipei

Major powers will watch the ceremony and Taiwan's response because the disagreement is connected to security in the Western Pacific. China has increased military activity around Taiwan in recent years, giving the contest over historical and legal claims a security setting as well as a diplomatic one.

The United States maintains unofficial ties with Taiwan and provides defensive support under the Taiwan Relations Act. It does not recognize Taiwan as a state and has warned against the use of force to change the status quo.

Beijing sees the October commemoration as an affirmation of a historical settlement. Taipei sees an effort to reshape that settlement around the claims of a different state founded after the war. Those positions explain why a ceremony marking events 80 years ago is prompting restrictions, accusations and close attention today.

The gathering will leave the underlying disagreements unresolved. Its immediate importance lies in how Beijing presents Taiwan's history, who joins the commemoration and how Taipei responds while military, legal and diplomatic pressure remains in focus.

Key Points

• Diplomatic sources say Beijing plans an October 25 morning ceremony at the Great Hall of the People to mark 80 years since Taiwan's 1945 handover.
• As of October 22, the final agenda, full speaker list and senior leadership attendance have not been publicly announced.
• Taiwan has barred central and local officials, students and teachers from Chinese retrocession events and urged the public to stay away.
• Beijing describes the anniversary as a shared Chinese victory. Taipei says Japan surrendered to the Republic of China, not the People's Republic of China founded in 1949.
• The 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty named no recipient for Taiwan after Japan renounced sovereignty. Taipei regards the 1952 Treaty of Taipei as confirming the earlier transfer.
• UN Resolution 2758 transferred China's UN seat in 1971 without adjudicating Taiwan's sovereignty.
• The ceremony follows China's September military parade and falls in a year when Taiwan has cataloged military, legal, aviation and trade pressure.
• Taipei will host East Asia's largest Pride march during the same weekend.