A renewed debate on Taiwan’s status is expected as the government plans to put historical documents concerning Taiwan on exhibition next year to mark the 100th anniversary of the Republic of China (ROC), a source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Among international treaties to be displayed are those signed by the Qing imperial government and the ROC with other countries, such as the Treaty of Shimonoseki.
The exhibition will travel across the country to show that Taiwan’s sovereignty undoubtedly belongs to the ROC, the source said.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡) made a visit to the National Palace Museum on Friday to inspect documents owned by the ministry and stored at the museum, including the Treaty of Nanking, the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Boxer Protocol, the Treaty of Taipei and the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, as the ministry plans to organize the exhibitions next year, the ministry source said.
In the Treaty of Shimonoseki signed in 1895, the Qing Empire ceded Taiwan and Penghu Islands to Japan.
In the Treaty of Taipei — signed between the ROC and Japan in 1952 — Japan renounced all its rights, title and claims to Taiwan, Penghu Islands, the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands, while also nullifying all treaties, conventions and agreements between China and Japan signed before Aug. 9, 1941.
However, Japan in turn unilaterally nullified the Treaty of Taipei in 1972 when it established formal diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.
The Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty signed in 1954 between the ROC and the US, on the other hand, drew the framework for military cooperation between Taiwan and the US during the Cold War.
Sources said the documents would be exhibited at Taipei Guest House at the beginning of next year before the exhibition heads to other parts of the country.
The exhibitions would be the first time these documents were available for public view.
Honorary professor at National Taipei University and historian Chen Ching-jen (鄭欽仁) criticized the planned exhibition as move by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government to “Sinicize Taiwan.”
Cheng said the occupation of Taiwan by KMT troops at the end of World War II did not mean that Taiwan’s sovereignty was transferred to the ROC.
He said that in both the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1952 and the Treaty of Taipei, Japan only agreed to cede its rights and claim over Taiwan, but did not mention to whom.
The true spirit of the San Francisco Peace Treaty then, Cheng said, was to return the sovereignty of Taiwan to Taiwanese.
He also said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) stressed during the presidential campaign that the sovereignty of Taiwan belongs to the public, and that the public would have the final say about the future of Taiwan.
“Ma should remember his promise,” Cheng said, adding that the government’s plan to prove that Taiwan belongs to the ROC only shows that the KMT still has the mentality of a foreign regime, despite the fact that it had lost power once and only returned to power through elections.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS