Taiwan President Lai Ching-te criticised strongmen personality cults and secret police networks on Wednesday (Sept 3), as Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted the leaders of Russia and North Korea at a military parade marking the end of World War Two, Reuters reported.

Democratically-governed Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory, has repeatedly lambasted China for what Taipei sees as a distorted view of the war, as the Republic of China was the government at the time, fighting alongside the Allies.

The Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists and retains the formal name to this day, according to Reuters.