On 10 October 1911, the Wuchang Uprising was launched as part of the Xinhai Revolution to overthrow the Manchu-led Qing, the last Chinese dynasty.

Towards the end of the Chinese Civil War, the Nationalist Kuomintang relocated to island of Taiwan, formerly a Qing prefecture that was ceded to Japan from 1895 to 1945, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 on the mainland.

[7] Over 50 delegations and 1,500 distinguished guests representing ROC's diplomatic allies visited Taiwan during the celebration.

[8] Many notables including US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus were in attendance.

The event was attended by CCP general secretary Hu Jintao as well as former leader Jiang Zemin.

The ceremony then lasted 40 minutes featuring a giant portrait of Sun Yat-sen supported by 10 PRC flags.

[10] In Wuhan the government officials spent 43 million yuan in restoring three 1911 heritage sites,[11] but they were careful in not letting the celebration outshine the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party that took place in July.

In 2010, one of the main anniversary events was to make a film on the life of Sun Yat-sen shot in places where he lived and worked, including Britain, Singapore, Japan and Hawaii.

[18] Taiwan aboriginal rights activists of the Sediq National Assembly who represent the Atayal people announced a headhunt against the ROC government.

[21] In April 2011 an inter-university debate related to Sun Yat-sen was supposed to be hosted by the Beijing Institute of Technology.

[22] Criticism was in particular directed at the PRC, saying that the government spend more money on its poor, sick and elderly instead on the anniversary celebration.

[23] But according to legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), the songs available for voting may not have been from ROC citizens, as the evaluation was sloppy.