Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, June 11th. Title: Advocating "The Uncertainty of Taiwan's Status" is doomed to fail

  Zhou Yezhong, Vice President of Wuhan University and Professor of Law School

  Huang Zhixiong, Associate Dean of Wuhan University Law School and Professor of International Law Institute

  A few days ago, the DPP authorities have clamored for the so-called "indeterminate theory of Taiwan's status", trying to confuse the people with illegal and invalid historical waste paper and challenge the one-China principle recognized by the international community.

But this cliché has no legal basis in international law and is destined to be swept into the garbage dump of history.

  Legal documents such as the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation, and the Japanese surrender have irrefutably established Taiwan's status as a Chinese territory.

As we all know, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands have been part of Chinese territory since ancient times, but they were forcibly seized by Japan through the Shimonoseki Treaty in 1895.

For this reason, the "Cairo Declaration" issued by China, the United States and the United Kingdom on December 1, 1943 clearly stipulated that the territories that Japan had stolen from China, such as the four northeastern provinces, Taiwan, and the Penghu Islands, should be returned to China.

On July 26, 1945, the "Potsdam Proclamation" issued by the aforementioned three countries (later joined by the Soviet Union) urged Japan to surrender unconditionally and reiterated that "the conditions of the Cairo Declaration will be implemented."

Both the "Edict of Ending War" broadcast by Emperor Hirohito of Japan on August 15, 1945 and the letter of surrender signed by the Japanese government on September 2 expressly promised to accept the relevant provisions of the "Potsdam Proclamation".

It can be seen that the "Cairo Declaration" and the "Potsdam Proclamation" determined that Taiwan should be returned to China's status, and was accepted by the Japanese surrender.

The above-mentioned legal documents as a whole establish the relationship of rights and obligations over the relevant territorial sovereignty between the victorious and the defeated.

On October 25, 1945, the Chinese government announced that it would recover Taiwan and the Penghu Islands and resume the exercise of sovereignty over Taiwan.

As a result, Taiwan's status has been irrefutably confirmed in international law, whether as a legal issue or a state of fact.

  The content of the "San Francisco Peace Treaty" involving Taiwan is illegal and invalid, and cannot be cited as the so-called "legal basis" for the "indefinite status of Taiwan."

According to the generally recognized principles of international law, the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China has become the sole legal government of China since October 1, 1949, and the "Republic of China" government no longer has any legal status to represent China.

However, when New China was illegally deprived of the opportunity to participate in the conference, the United States gathered relevant countries on September 4, 1951 to convene a so-called "peace meeting with Japan" in San Francisco, forming the so-called "San Francisco Peace Treaty."

The peace treaty not only violated the provisions of the United Nations Declaration signed by 26 countries including China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union in 1942, which stipulated that "the governments of each signatory country shall not independently truce or make peace with enemy countries," and it also violated China’s disposal of China’s legal territories. This practice is a flagrant violation of the basic norms of international law.

The "Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties" stipulates: "A treaty shall not create obligations or rights for a third country without the consent of that country."

Obviously, the "San Francisco Peace Treaty" has no right to dispose of Taiwan's sovereignty and other legal rights and interests of China, and the relevant provisions do not have any international legal effect.

  In short, from the perspective of international law, the status of Taiwan and the Penghu Islands as part of China's territories has been confirmed by the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation and the Japanese surrender, and they have become ironclad facts.

The provisions of the "San Francisco Peace Treaty" involving Taiwan are all invalid to China, and cannot replace the above-mentioned documents as the legal basis for establishing Taiwan's sovereignty.

History cannot be tampered with.

There is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is a part of China.

The historical and legal facts that both sides of the strait belong to one China cannot be changed by anyone or any force.

No matter what tricks are used to seek "independence", they are illegal and invalid.

All acts and tricks to split the motherland are doomed to failure and will be condemned by the people and punished by history.