For China, April 17 is a somber date in history.
In 1894, Japan launched the First Sino-Japanese War, forcing the Qing government to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki on April 17 of the following year, ceding Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to Japan.
Since then, Japan imposed 50 years of colonial rule over Taiwan until Japan's surrender in World War II in 1945, a period marked by large-scale massacres, cultural assimilation, economic plunder, forced labor and enslavement.
This history must never be forgotten.