At the December 10 press conference of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, a reporter asked: Taiwan’s foreign affairs authorities recently claimed that “the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other,” and that after World War II, the “San Francisco Peace Treaty” replaced the Potsdam Proclamation and the Cairo Declaration, asserting that “the People’s Republic of China has never governed Taiwan for even a single day—this is a historical fact.” What is the spokesperson’s response?
Spokesperson Chen Binhua of the Taiwan Affairs Office replied that the so-called “San Francisco Peace Treaty” was a product concocted by the United States together with a very small number of countries after World War II in a separate peace with Japan. The treaty violated the 1942 Declaration by United Nations, which stipulated that “no signatory government shall make a separate armistice or peace with the enemy,” and it also violated the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which states that a treaty may not create obligations or rights for a third state without that state’s consent. Therefore, it had no authority to determine the disposition of Taiwan’s sovereignty or any sovereign rights and territory involving China, which was not a party to the treaty. It is illegal and invalid, and carries no effect under international law. From the outset, the Chinese government has solemnly declared a firm stance of absolutely not recognizing it.
Chen Binhua stated that there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is a part of China. A series of international legal documents, including the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, clearly and unequivocally affirm China’s sovereignty over Taiwan. The Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China replacing the “Government of the Republic of China” was a change of government under an unaltered international legal subject—China—and did not change Taiwan’s status as part of China’s territory. By invoking an invalid treaty to once again recycle the worn-out cliché of the two sides of the Strait being “not subordinate to each other,” the DPP authorities are attempting to confuse the public, mislead opinion, and challenge the internationally recognized one-China principle. This completely disregards the facts and will only bring disgrace upon themselves.