The Cabinet gives Ma a history class

"There's no such a thing as the Cairo Declaration because it's nothing but a press communique," Tu said.

He also pointed out that even the current textbooks were inaccurate.

"While current textbooks say the document states that Japan was to return Taiwan to China, the original document actually says that Japan would return Taiwan to the Republic of China," he said.

Disapproving of the argument that Taiwan's international status is undefined, Ma said that the theory had been superceded by the Shanghai Communique in 1972.

He did not explain how an agreement between the US and the PRC, which also does not have the force of a treaty, could change the legal situation resulting from the San Francisco Treaty.

Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南), pointed out to Ma that while the the US stated in the document that it `acknowledged' that "all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is part of China" and that the US would not challenge that position, the US specifically did not say that it agreed with that position, nor did it ever agree that the PRC had a claim over Taiwan.

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Parties argue over history education