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Compatriots across the Taiwan Straits should join hands to work for China's reunification and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, says an editorial of People's Daily to be published Tuesday.
Tuesday marks the 60th anniversary of China's recovery of Taiwan, which ended a 50-year span of Japanese colonial rule. A series of commemorative activities have been arranged on China's mainland and Taiwan for the event.
"As we review the history of Taiwan from its cession to its recovery and other historical facts about Taiwan, we see that Taiwan has never been a country but instead an inalienable part of the Chinese territory," says the editorial.
"The fact is confirmed by international law and is generally acknowledged by the international community," the editorial says.
The Chinese government of the Qing Dynasty (1616--1911) was forced to cede Taiwan and the adjacent Penghu Islands to to Japan in 1895 after losing a war with Japanese aggressors. China recovered Taiwan on October 25, 1945, marked by a ceremony organized by China's Kuomintang government to accept the surrender of Japanese aggressors in Taiwan.
"Although the two sides of the Taiwan Straits are still not reunited, Taiwan's status that it is part of the Chinese territory has never changed and will not be allowed to change," the editorial says.
"We recall history to better face the future," the editorial says, adding that the past misery should not be allowed to repeat and all Chinese people have the responsibility to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity and work for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
The editorial called on Chinese people on both sides of the Straits to join hands and with history in mind, and write a new chapter in the reunification of the motherland and the rejuvenation of the nation.
(Xinhua News Agency October 24, 2005)
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