Taiwan’s KMT plays ROC calendar card at Chinese ceremony

TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang invoked the Republic of China calendar Wednesday (April 8) at a ceremony in Nanjing facilitated by the Chinese Communist Party. The party dated a memorial tribute to "Year 115 of the Republic" (民國115年) — a government Beijing officially maintains ceased to exist in 1949.

KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) led the delegation to Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum (中山陵), the resting place of the party's founding leader who died in 1925. KMT spokesperson Chiang Yi-chen (江怡臻) read the tribute aloud. It opened with the formal ROC dating: "On the 8th day of the 4th month of the 115th year of the Republic of China."

The ceremonial text concluded with the phrase "Together create peace, Treasure Island and Divine Land" (共創和平，寶島神州), using classical terms for Taiwan and China. Cheng did not leave calligraphy at the site, unlike previous KMT chairpeople who visited. This was the first visit by a sitting KMT chairperson to mainland China in 10 years.

The ROC calendar, which counts years from the republic's founding in 1912, remains Taiwan's official dating system. Year 115 corresponds to 2026 in the Gregorian calendar. The People's Republic of China does not recognize the ROC, making the calendar choice a quiet assertion of legitimacy on soil Beijing controls.

In extended remarks after the visit, Cheng framed the cross-strait divide as a wound inflicted by foreign imperialism rather than internal conflict. "To this day, the wound inflicted 130 years ago by the First Sino-Japanese War along the Taiwan Strait — cut by the blade of Japanese imperialism — has not healed," she said.

Cheng invoked Sun Yat-sen's philosophy — which both the KMT and CCP claim as ideological heritage — to call for reconciliation. "The core values of Sun Yat-sen's philosophy of serving the public have always been equality, tolerance and unity," she said. "We should work together to promote cross-strait reconciliation and unity, and create regional prosperity and peace."

She referenced her participation in former Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) 2005 "peace journey," which marked the first meeting between KMT and CCP leaders since 1949. "Today, 21 years later, I have returned to Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum," Cheng said, adding that she hoped to "plant seeds of peace."

Taiwan Affairs Office (國台辦) spokesperson Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) did not address the ROC calendar usage in her Wednesday remarks. She reiterated Beijing's position that cross-strait affairs are "family matters" that should be resolved by Chinese people. Zhu criticized Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party for pursuing "Taiwan independence" interests.

It was not immediately clear whether Beijing reviewed or approved the memorial text before the ceremony. Chinese state media coverage had not been fully analyzed at time of reporting. Whether PRC outlets would include or omit the ROC dating remained an open question that could signal Beijing's official stance.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (陸委會) urged Cheng a day earlier to demand that Beijing recognize the ROC and stop military harassment of Taiwan. Whether the tribute's ROC dating represented that demand — or Beijing's tolerance of it represented a quiet accommodation — remained unclear. Cheng is scheduled to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing on Friday. The question of what "Year 115 of the Republic" means to both sides may find an answer there. ◼