Winston Churchill, Harry Truman and Iosif Stalin at Potsdam Conference since 1945, photo: Jerry Tavin / Everett / Profimedia
China intentionally distorts the nature of documents from the Second World War to exert pressure on Taiwan and Isola, because those agreements did not establish the final political status of the island, said the US facto at Taipei, quoted by Reuters.
The 80th anniversary of the conclusion of the war was marked by a heated dispute between Taipei and Beijing on its broader historical significance and current relevance.
Beijing states that documents such as the Cairo Declaration and the proclamation of Potsdam support its legal claims of sovereignty, as they demanded that Taiwan be “restored” under the Chinese leadership in a period when he was under Japanese occupation.
But the Chinese state at that time was recognized as the Republic of China, its government being the one who took refuge in 1949 in Taiwan after losing a civil war against Mao Zedong's communists, after the end of World War.
The Republic of China remains the official name of Taiwan, and its government states that no agreement in World War II mentioned Mao's People's Republic, as it did not exist then. Therefore, the Taiwanese government states that Beijing has no right to claim the island today.
What the American side says
“China intentionally distorts documents from the Second World War, including the Cairo Declaration, the proclamation of Potsdam and the Treaty of San Francisco, to try to support the coercive campaign of Taiwan,” the US Institute in Taiwan, considered Washington, on Monday.
“Beijing's narratives are simply false, and none of these documents has established the final political status of the Taiwan,” added the US de facto embassy in a statement sent by email to Reuters.
Japan signed the Peace Treaty of San Francisco in 1951, giving up his claims on Taiwan, although the island's sovereignty remained unresolved in that pact. Beijing states that the treaty is “illegal and invalid” because it was not among the signatory countries.
China's reaction
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has expressed its “powerful dissatisfaction” towards Monday comments of the American Institute, saying that they are “deceitful”.
“A series of documents with legal effect, such as the Cairo Declaration and Japan's capitulation document, clearly confirm China's sovereignty on Taiwan and Taiwan's status,” said the ministry spokesman, Lin Jian, in Beijing.
The United States ended official diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979, when they recognized communist China, but remain the most important international supporter of the island.
“False legal narratives are part of the larger Beijing campaign to try to isolate Taiwan by the international community and to constrain the sovereign elections of other countries in terms of their interactions with Taiwan,” added the US Institute in Taiwan.
Thanks from Taiwan
Taiwan's Foreign Minister Lin Chia-Lung has expressed thanks for the American mission statement.
“Our country and the People's Republic of China are not subordinated to each other, and the People's Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan in the International Community,” Lin said in a statement.
On September 3, Chinese President Xi Jinping supervised a vast military parade in Beijing to mark the anniversary of the conclusion of World War II, with the surrender of militaristic Japan.
