Retrocession Day

This article is about the public holiday. For the event itself, see Retrocession of Taiwan.
Retrocession Day
Observed by
TypeHistorical, cultural, nationalist
SignificanceCommemorates the retrocession of and the end of the Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan
Date25 October 1945
FrequencyAnnual
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese臺灣光復節
Simplified Chinese台湾光复节
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTáiwān guāngfùjié
Hakka
RomanizationThòi-vân kông fu̍k chiet
Southern Min
Tâi-lôTâi-uân kong-ho̍k tseh
Taiwan Recovery and Kinmen Guningtou Victory Memorial Day
Traditional Chinese臺灣光復暨金門古寧頭大捷紀念日
Simplified Chinese台湾光复暨金门古宁头大捷纪念日
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTáiwān Guāngfùjì Jīnmén Gǔníngtóu Dàjié Jìniànrì
Commemoration Day of Taiwan's Restoration
Traditional Chinese臺灣光復紀念日
Simplified Chinese台湾光复纪念日
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTáiwān Guāngfù Jìniànrì

Retrocession Day, officially called the Taiwan Retrocession Day and the Anniversary of the Battle of Guningtou in Taiwan and the Commemoration Day of Taiwan's Restoration in mainland China, is a public holiday in the Republic of China (Taiwan) and a memorial day in the People's Republic of China, created in 2025, to commemorate the end of Japanese rule of Taiwan and its transfer to the Republic of China on 25 October 1945.

Background

Taiwan, then more commonly known to the Western world as "Formosa", became a colony of the Empire of Japan after the Qing dynasty lost the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894 and ceded the island with the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki. Japanese rule in Taiwan lasted until the end of World War II.

In November 1943, Chiang Kai-shek took part in the Cairo Conference with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, who firmly advocated that Japan be required to return all of the territory it had annexed into its empire, including Taiwan and the Penghu (Pescadores) Islands. Article 8 of the Potsdam Declaration, drafted by the United States, United Kingdom, and China in July 1945, reiterated that the provisions of the Cairo Declaration be thoroughly carried out, and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender stated Japan's agreement to the terms of the Potsdam Proclamation.

Under the authorization of American General Douglas MacArthur's General Order No. 1, Chen Yi (Chief Executive of Taiwan Province) was escorted by George H. Kerr to Taiwan to accept the Japanese government's surrender as the Chinese delegate. When the Japanese surrendered at the end of World War II, General Rikichi Andō, governor-general of Taiwan and commander-in-chief of all Japanese forces on the island, signed a receipt of Order No. 1 and handed it over to Governor-General of Taiwan Chen Yi, representing the Republic of China Armed Forces to complete the official turnover in Taipei (known during occupation as Taihoku) on 25 October 1945, at Taipei City Public Auditorium (now Zhongshan Hall). Chen Yi proclaimed that day to be "Retrocession Day" and organized the island into the Taiwan Province of the Republic of China. Chen Yi's unilateral act, however, did not gain agreement from the US and the UK, for both considered Taiwan still under military occupation pending a peace treaty,[1][2] though the US accepted Chinese authority over Taiwan at the time and viewed the Republic of China as the legal government of China.[3][4] Taiwan has since been governed by the Government of the Republic of China.

History

Taiwan

In October 1946, the Taiwan Provincial Government issued an order to designate this day as the "Recovery Day" for the first time and to declare a day off.[5] Since then, this holiday has been included in the list of legal holidays of the Republic of China under the name of "Taiwan Recovery Day".[6][7]

Revision in 2000

The meaning of the holiday and whether it should be celebrated have been publicly debated following the period of martial law in Taiwan.[8] In December 2000, Taiwan's government promulgated the revised "Regulations on the Implementation of Memorial Days and Holidays", which cancelled many holidays including Restoration Day.[9][10][11]

2025 reestablishment

In May 2025, the Legislative Yuan under the control of the Kuomintang passed the "Regulations for the Implementation of Memorial Days and Holidays" in its third reading, establishing the "Taiwan Retrocession Day and the Anniversary of the Battle of Guningtou" to merge Taiwan Restoration Day with the starting date of the Kinmen Guningtou victory on 25 October 1949 into the same memorial day to jointly commemorate two important events of historical significance to the Republic of China, and to restore holidays at the same time.[12] Major Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) figures, such as Hsu Kuo-yung, spoke out against the reestablishment of the holiday.[8] In 2025, the Taiwanese government announced that it would be made a public holiday in 2026.[8][13]

People's Republic of China

On 24 October 2025, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China established the "Commemoration Day of Taiwan's Restoration" and stipulated that the country would hold commemorative activities,[14] a decision which Taiwan Affairs Office director Song Tao said was done "personally" by General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping.[15] The following day, Wang Huning, the chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, attended an event to mark the day, where he said mainland China and Taiwan should "work together to advance the cause of national reunification and must leave no room for any form of ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist activities".[15][16] PRC government sources and allied think tanks have described the holiday as an opportunity to conduct lawfare and "historical narrative warfare" (Chinese: 历史论述战) in support of Chinese unification.[8]

Responses

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council called the PRC's designation of the holiday in mainland China an attempt to "belittle our country and fabricate the claim that Taiwan belongs to the PRC."[17] Taiwan barred its officials and students from attending celebratory events for the day in the PRC.[18][8] The DPP, Taiwanese independence groups, and some commentators see the PRC's holiday as an attempt to revise history and create uncertainty about the political status of Taiwan for the purpose of advancing pro-unification narratives.[19][20][8]

In some major cities in the United States, united front groups, such as the Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China, and various overseas Chinese hometown associations have organized celebrations of the day.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Far East (Formosa and the Pescadores)". Hansard. 540 (cc1870–4). UK Parliament. 4 May 1955. Retrieved 1 September 2010. The sovereignty was Japanese until 1952. The Japanese Treaty came into force, and at that time Formosa was being administered by the Chinese Nationalists, to whom it was entrusted in 1945, as a military occupation.
  2. ^ CIA (1949-03-14). "Probable Developments in Taiwan" (PDF). pp. 1–3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 September 2015. Retrieved 8 March 2015. From the legal standpoint, Taiwan is not part of the Republic of China. Pending a Japanese peace treaty, the island remains occupied territory......neither the US, or any other power, has formally recognized the annexation by China of Taiwan
  3. ^ "William P. Rogers, Attorney General of the United States, Appellant v. Cheng Fu Sheng and Lin Fu Mei, Appellees, 280 F.2d 663 (D.C. Cir. 1960)". 1960. But in the view of our State Department, no agreement has 'purported to transfer the sovereignty of Formosa to (the Republic of) China.' At the present time, we accept the exercise of Chinese authority over Formosa, and recognize the Government of the Republic of China (the Nationalist Government) as the legal Government of China.
  4. ^ Maurer, Ely. "Legal Problems Regarding Formosa and the Offshore Islands", U.S. Department of State Bulletin, Vol. 39, pp. 1005–1011 (December 22, 1958)(transcript of speech on November 20, 1958)("Neither this agreement [of April 28, 1952] nor any other agreement thereafter has purported to transfer the sovereignty of Formosa to [the Republic of] China....The situation is, then, one where the Allied Powers still have to come to some agreement or treaty with respect to the status of Formosa. Any action, therefore, of the Chinese Communist regime to seize Formosa constitutes an attempt to seize by force territory which does not belong to it.").
  5. ^ 公告十月廿五日為本省光復紀念日休假一天 Archived 2015-12-22 at the Wayback Machine，臺灣省行政長官公署公報
  6. ^ 紀念日及節日實施辦法 Archived 2020-02-07 at the Wayback Machine ，全國法規資料庫
  7. ^ "中華民國外交史料特展 臺灣光復". 國立故宮博物院. Archived from the original on 2015-07-11. Retrieved 2014-12-06.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Yang, Dennis (28 October 2025). "CCP Appropriates Taiwan Retrocession Day". China Brief. Jamestown Foundation. Retrieved 1 November 2025.
  9. ^ 紀念日及節日實施辦法 Archived 2020-02-07 at the Wayback Machine.全國法規資料庫
  10. ^ 林麗珊 (2007). 女性主義與兩性關係 (in Chinese). 五南圖書出版股份有限公司. ISBN 978-957-11-4930-1.
  11. ^ 「時代創造青年」─從戰後臺灣的青年節慶祝看國家權力對青年的形象塑造（1950－1975） Archived 2014-10-29 at the Wayback Machine，周俊宇，國立政治大學臺灣史研究所，PDF，國立臺灣圖書館，[1]
  12. ^ 張睿廷、鄧博仁 (2025-05-09). "全國放假4＋1「聖誕節也有」 立院三讀通過《紀念日條例》". China Times.
  13. ^ "Taiwan unveils public 2026 holiday schedule". Taiwan News. 2025-06-13. Retrieved 2025-11-01.
  14. ^ Wu, Huizhong (2025-10-24). "China creates Day of Taiwan's Restoration as part of sovereignty claims over island". Associated Press. Retrieved 2025-10-24.
  15. ^ a b Zhuang, Sylvie (25 October 2025). "Beijing's Wang Huning takes aim at 'Taiwan independence' in restoration day address". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
  16. ^ Goh, Brenda (25 October 2025). "Top China official says peaceful 'reunification' with Taiwan is best path forward - Xinhua". Reuters. Retrieved 25 October 2025.
  17. ^ "Taiwan slams China for designating Oct. 25 'Taiwan Restoration' day". Focus Taiwan. 2025-10-24. Retrieved 2025-11-01.
  18. ^ Muzaffar, Maroosha (2025-10-17). "Taiwan bars officials and students from China's 'retrocession' events". The Independent. Retrieved 2025-11-01.
  19. ^ Campagnola, Davide (2025-11-01). "China's 'Commemoration Day of Taiwan's Restoration' attempts to use lawfare as unification tool". Taiwan News. Retrieved 2025-11-01.
  20. ^ Chen, Cheng-yu; Chung, Jake (2025-10-26). "CCP's distortion of truth destined to fail: DPP". Taipei Times. Retrieved 2025-11-01.
  • Media related to Surrender of Japan in Taiwan at Wikimedia Commons
  • Taiwan's Retrocession Day on the Government Information Office website of Taiwan
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