Wednesday marked 72 years since Japan’s surrender was accepted in Taiwan. At the time, the Republic of China (ROC) was playing tricks and when Chen Yi (陳儀) handed Order No. 1 to General Rikichi Ando, Japan’s last governor-general of Taiwan, it had the text “Receiving the territory of Taiwan and the Penghu archipelago,” with the result that Ando did not sign the surrender document.
To this day, Ando’s surrender cannot be found in the ROC, although the acceptance of the surrender took place in Taiwan. This led to the lie that Taiwan and Penghu were handed over to the ROC through the Treaty of Taipei on April 28, 1952.
First, on Sept. 17, 1951, then-US ambassador to Taiwan Karl Ranking warned then-minister of foreign affairs George Yeh (葉公超) that the Treaty of Taipei could not imply that Taiwan became a de jure part of Chinese territory.
On May 13, 1952, the ROC’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) stated in Volume 54 addressing the peace treaty with Japan that “the San Francisco Peace Treaty only stipulates that Japan renounce sovereignty over Taiwan and Penghu, but does not specify to whom, and this cannot be remedied through the peace treaty with Japan.”
On July 16, 1952, a Central Daily News article said: “In accordance with the Cairo Declaration, we have received Taiwan and Penghu, where we are exercising executive power, and there is no doubt that Taiwan and Penghu are part of our territory. The Treaty of Peace between the Republic of China and Japan has been executed exactly in accordance with the San Francisco Peace Treaty, and on this matter, we have done all we can to add further stipulations, but in the end, we did not achieve our goals.”
On July 23, 1952, Dispatch No. 31 from the US embassy in Taiwan reported to the US Department of State that Yeh had said that due to the delicate international situation, Taiwan and Penghu “do not belong to us. In the current situation, Japan has no right to hand over Formosa and Penghu to us, nor can we accept such a transfer from Japan even if it so wishes.”
However, MOFA says that no such files exist.
On July 13, 1971, then-US Department of State legal adviser Robert Starr in a note to Office of Republic of China Affairs director Charles Sylvester confirmed the text in the previous point, “nor can we accept such a transfer from Japan even if it so wishes.”
Sim Kiantek is a former associate professor in the Department of Business Administration at National Chung Hsing University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
President William Lai (賴清德) attended a dinner held by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) when representatives from the group visited Taiwan in October. In a speech at the event, Lai highlighted similarities in the geopolitical challenges faced by Israel and Taiwan, saying that the two countries “stand on the front line against authoritarianism.” Lai noted how Taiwan had “immediately condemned” the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas and had provided humanitarian aid. Lai was heavily criticized from some quarters for standing with AIPAC and Israel. On Nov. 4, the Taipei Times published an opinion article (“Speak out on the
Eighty-seven percent of Taiwan’s energy supply this year came from burning fossil fuels, with more than 47 percent of that from gas-fired power generation. The figures attracted international attention since they were in October published in a Reuters report, which highlighted the fragility and structural challenges of Taiwan’s energy sector, accumulated through long-standing policy choices. The nation’s overreliance on natural gas is proving unstable and inadequate. The rising use of natural gas does not project an image of a Taiwan committed to a green energy transition; rather, it seems that Taiwan is attempting to patch up structural gaps in lieu of
The image was oddly quiet. No speeches, no flags, no dramatic announcements — just a Chinese cargo ship cutting through arctic ice and arriving in Britain in October. The Istanbul Bridge completed a journey that once existed only in theory, shaving weeks off traditional shipping routes. On paper, it was a story about efficiency. In strategic terms, it was about timing. Much like politics, arriving early matters. Especially when the route, the rules and the traffic are still undefined. For years, global politics has trained us to watch the loud moments: warships in the Taiwan Strait, sanctions announced at news conferences, leaders trading
News about expanding security cooperation between Israel and Taiwan, including the visits of Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) in September and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) this month, as well as growing ties in areas such as missile defense and cybersecurity, should not be viewed as isolated events. The emphasis on missile defense, including Taiwan’s newly introduced T-Dome project, is simply the most visible sign of a deeper trend that has been taking shape quietly over the past two to three years. Taipei is seeking to expand security and defense cooperation with Israel, something officials
RSS