President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said various historical documents “clearly showed” that Taiwan “returned to the embrace” of the Republic of China (ROC) in 1945 after Japan signed the Instrument of Surrender to bring an end to World War II.
Although China ceded full sovereignty of Taiwan and all its islands to Japan in perpetuity in the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, nobody would have imagined that Taiwan would “return to the embrace” of the ROC 50 years later, Ma said.
The 1943 Cairo Communique, worked out by the ROC president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), then-US president Franklin Roosevelt and then-British prime minister Winston Churchill, said Japan should return Taiwan, Penghu and other territories in northeast China that it had “stolen” from the Chinese, Ma said.
The Potsdam Declaration of 1945 reaffirmed the Cairo Communique and gave the ROC the right to take sovereignty over Taiwan and Penghu, he said.
According to Ma, in its Instrument of Surrender, Japan accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and former US president Harry Truman also accepted the idea that sovereignty over Taiwan was settled as the US Department of State said that the US and other Allied powers accepted the exercise of Chinese authority over Formosa, which was surrendered to Chiang.
The 1952 Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty (also known as the Treaty of Taipei) affirmed the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, and stated that the Japanese government would renounce any claims to Taiwan, Penghu, the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands, Ma said, adding that the 1952 treaty “asserted” that the legal successor government of the territories was the ROC.
“All of this is very clear and [represents] legal and political evidence,” Ma said.
Although the Japanese built “some” infrastructure in Taiwan, Ma said, its rule was abusive and high-handed.
“However, all this is history. I am not trying to incite hatred, but while we can forgive the mistake of the Japanese invasion, we must not forget the history of blood and tears,” he said.
Ma made the remarks at the opening ceremony of a special exhibit in commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the victory in the war of resistance against the Japanese and the “retrocession” of Taiwan at Taipei Zhongshan Hall yesterday morning.
Zhongshan Hall was where the ROC government accepted the surrender of Japan in 1945.
The exhibition was organized by the Taiwan Provincial Government and the Taipei City Government.
Ma said wars must be honored, but peace must be emphasized, and the reason his administration chose to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the victory in the war of resistance was to make the public feel proud of Taiwan because “Taiwan has become the Taiwanese people’s Taiwan and the ROC’s Taiwan.”
Deputy Taipei Mayor Allen Chiu (邱文祥) pledged to build Taipei into “the capital of all Chinese of the 21st century.”
Taiwan Provincial Government Governor Lin Jung-tzer (林政則) said the eight-year war of resistance was led by Chinese Nationlist Party (KMT) troops and because of their victory, Taiwan and Penghu were able to “retrocede” from the hands of the Japanese.
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
RSS