Taiwan's denial of communist role in World War II is 'blasphemy', China says

China said on Wednesday Taiwan was "blaspheming" the sacrifices of those who died fighting Japan in World War II by denying the pivotal role of the communist party and denounced Taipei's call for Taiwanese to stay away from Beijing's commemorations. This year's 80th anniversary of the end of the war, preceded in China by Japan's 1931 takeover of eastern Manchuria and its subsequent invasion of the rest of the country in 1937, has set off a bitter battle of narratives between Beijing and Taipei. China is also marking the anniversary of the handover of Taiwan, a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945, to the Chinese government at the war's end.