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Taiwan cession
The political status of Taiwan is controversial due to questions about whether Taiwan should remain part of the Republic of China, become part of the People's Republic of China, or become an independent Republic of Taiwan. Different groups have different concepts of what the current situation is. See also Taiwan independence and Chinese reunification.
In addition, it can be confusing because of the different parties and the effort by many groups to deal with the controversy through a policy of deliberate ambiguity. The political solution that is acceptable to most of the current groups is the status quo (that is, to leave Taiwan's status the way that it is.) This is acceptable in large part because it does not define what Taiwan's status is, leaving each group to interpret the situation in a way that is politically acceptable to its members.
1 Question of sovereignty
1.1 Cession, retrocession and self-determination of Taiwan
China ceded the island of Taiwan to Japan "in perpetuity" at the end of the first Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) by the Treaty of Shimonoseki. In the Cairo Conference of 1943, the allied powers agreed to have Japan restore "all the territories Japan has stolen form the Chinese", which included Taiwan and the Pescadores, to the Republic of China upon Japan's surrender. According to both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China, this agreement was given legal force by the Instrument of Surrender of Japan in 1945Events January January 5 The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland. January 7 British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge. January 12 World War II:. Many people in PRC and ROC also emphasized that it was the Cairo Declaration layed the fundation of the sovereignty claim over Taiwan.
On the other hand, a number of supporters of Taiwan independence argue that Cairo Declaration was an unsigned press communique and thus the legal effectiveness is highly questionable. Furthermore, they point out that the Instrument of Surrender of Japan was no more than an armisticeAn armistice is the effective end of a war, when the warring parties agree to stop fighting. The most famous armistice, the one still meant when people say simply "The Armistice", is the one at the end of World War I, on November 11, 1918. Armistice Day i, a Modus VivendiModus vivendi is a Latin phrase. Modus means mode way''. Vivendi means living''. Together, ways to living implies an accommodation between disputing parties to allow life to go on. It usually describes informal and temporary arrangements in political affa in nature, which served as a temporary or provisional agreement and always would be replaced with a peace treatyA peace treaty is an agreement between two hostile parties, usually countries or governments, that formally ends a war or armed conflict. One of the earliest recorded peace treaties was between the Hittite and Egyptian empires after the Battle of Kadesh c afterwards, in this case, Treaty of San FranciscoThe Treaty of Peace between the Allied Powers and Japan was officially signed by 48 nations on September 8, 1951 in San Francisco, resulting in the popularly used moniker, the Treaty of San Francisco . It was enacted on April 28, 1952. The treaty served t and Treaty of TaipeiThe Treaty of Peace between Japan and the Republic of China ( Japanese: , Chinese: ), commonly known as the Treaty of Taipei as it was signed in Taipei, was a peace treaty between Japan and the Republic of China (ROC) concluded on April 28, 1952. This tre, and therefore did not transfer title of Taiwan; and when Japan renounced sovereignty of Taiwan in the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951, the sovereignty of Taiwan returned to the people of Taiwan and thus justified self-determination as "territories which detached from enemy states as a result of the Second World War" defined by article 76b and 77b of the United Nations Charter. To support this argument, independence advocates point out that at the end of World War II, allied powers agreed that the Republic of China was to "temporarily occupy Taiwan, on behalf of the Allied forces". The 1952 Treaty of Taipei also indirectly suggested that Japan recognized the ROC government's sovereignty over Taiwan, Penghu, and "territories which are now, or which may hereafter be, under the control of its Government," but Japan cancelled this treaty upon establishment of diplomatic relations with the PRC in 1972.
Although the interpretation of the peace treaties was used to challenge the legitimacy of the ROC on Taiwan before the 1990s, the introduction of popular elections in Taiwan has compromised this position. Except for the most extreme Taiwan independence supporters, most Taiwanese support the popular sovereignty theory and no longer see a conflict between this theory of sovereignty and the ROC position. In this sense, the ROC government currently administrating Taiwan is not the same ROC which accepted Japanese surrender because the ruling authorities were given popular mandate by different pools of constituencies: one is the mainland Chinese electorate, the other is the Taiwanese constituencies. In fact, current president Chen Shui-bian has been frequently emphasizing the popular sovereignty theory in his speeches.
