A key document used by Beijing to justify its claims that Taiwan is a part of China never had any legally binding power, the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) said, citing a recent letter from a senior official at the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
Founded in 1982 by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮), FAPA is a Washington-based interest group that seeks to build up support in the US for Taiwan independence.
The association said in a statement last week that, according to NARA, the 1943 Cairo Declaration, signed by US president Franklin Roosevelt, British prime minister Winston Churchill and Republic of China (ROC) dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) at the end of WWII, was merely a "communique" and thus non-binding.
Among other provisions, the communique states that Japan shall "return Formosa," or Taiwan, to "the Chinese."
"The document is merely a moment in time," FAPA president CT Lee (
"Although important at the time," he added, "it does not have any legally binding power almost 65 years later enabling either the KMT [Chinese Nationalist Party] or [China] to derive territorial claims from."
In response to a FAPA letter of inquiry as to the declaration's status, NARA assistant archivist for Records Services, Michael Kurtz, wrote in a letter dated June 5 that "the declaration [is] a communique, and does not have treaty series or executive agreement series numbers."
FAPA said that the document's archival status as a "communique" and neither an official agreement nor a treaty, negates any legal claims based on the declaration by China or the KMT that Taiwan is a part of China.
"This marks the first time the US government has officially gone on record to elaborate the lack of legal binding power of the Cairo Declaration, and thus voids the basis of both the KMT's and Beijing's mythic `One China Principle' claims," the association said in the statement.
Despite its status in the US National Archives as a communique, however, the declaration is included in a US State Department publication titled, Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, Kurtz wrote, without explaining the apparent contradiction.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Republic of China Army Command yesterday relieved Kinmen Defense Battalion commander after authorities indicted the officer on charges connected to using methamphetamine. The Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday detained Colonel He (何) after the Coast Guard linked him to drug shipments and proceeded to charge him yesterday for using and possessing crystal meth. The man was released on a NT$50,000 bail and banned from leaving Kinmen, the office said. Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) told a news conference yesterday that He has been removed and another officer is taking over the unit as the acting commander. The military
RSS