BEIJING -- A Chinese mainland spokeswoman on Wednesday condemned Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te for his recent remarks that whitewashed and advocated Japan's colonial rule over Taiwan, calling such statements "a betrayal of the nation."

Zhu Fenglian, a spokeswoman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, made the comments in response to a relevant media inquiry.

Lai recently advocated the notorious notion of the so-called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," a concept advanced by militarist Japan during World War II to whitewash and justify its aggression and colonial crimes across Asia.

These remarks have sparked an outcry on the island, with experts and scholars condemning him for distorting history for partisan and personal gain, and for glossing over Japan's massacre and other colonial atrocities in Taiwan.

In response, Zhu said that whitewashing Japan's wartime crimes constitutes a distortion of history and a desecration of those who fought and sacrificed their lives in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, while also exposing Lai's underlying agenda of seeking "Taiwan independence."

Noting that Japan's invasion and colonial rule in Taiwan is "the darkest chapter in the island's history," Zhu said that during that period, the Japanese aggressors brutally suppressed the local population and plundered Taiwan's resources, inflicting profound suffering on the island and provoking strong resistance from local people.

She said any attempt to justify or overturn the verdict on colonial crimes will never be tolerated, and any external interference in the Taiwan question will never be allowed.

The spokeswoman called on compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to join hands in opposing "Taiwan independence" and external interference.