Two former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) officials on Saturday said that recent comments by AIT on Taiwan's political status are consistent with the long-standing position of the US on the issue.
Former AIT chair Richard Bush and former AIT deputy director Robert Wang both said in separate e-mails that the US does not consider the political status of Taiwan to have been determined by any post-World War II documents, and that Washington expects the issue to be resolved peacefully.
Photo: Reuters
Wang cited the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), a 1979 US law governing its exchanges with Taiwan after Washington switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing.
The TRA made clear that "the United States' decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC) rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means," he wrote.
"In other words, the TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the political status of Taiwan to have been determined by any previous documents, including the World War II-era declarations or treaties," he wrote.
Bush shared a similar view, saying the US has long stated that "cross-strait differences should be resolved peacefully and with the assent of the people of Taiwan."
Both former US envoys made the remarks when asked to comment on AIT's statement on Saturday responding to China's reliance on World War II-era documents, including the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, as justification for its sovereignty claim over Taiwan.
On Aug. 15, after the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in Anning, Yunnan, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation "clearly defined Japan's responsibility for the war and required that Japan return all the territories it had stolen from China, including Taiwan."
He described this as "an indisputable outcome of the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War and constitutes an important part of the post-war international order."
Asked to comment on the issue, an unnamed AIT spokesperson said on Saturday that China "intentionally mischaracterizes World War II-era documents, including the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation and the Treaty of San Francisco, "to try to support its coercive campaign to subjugate Taiwan."
"Beijing's narratives are simply false, and none of these documents determined Taiwan's ultimate political status," the spokesperson said.
"False legal narratives are part of Beijing's broader campaign to try to isolate Taiwan from the international community and constrain the sovereign choices of other countries regarding their interactions with Taiwan," the spokesperson added.
AIT's comments on the issue echoed Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung's (林佳龍) Aug. 16 statement rebuking Wang's remarks.
Lin said that after World War II, the San Francisco Peace Treaty — binding under international law — superseded the political statements made in the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation.
The treaty did not cede Taiwan to the PRC, and the PRC has never governed Taiwan, officially named the Republic of China (ROC), he said.
Lin said that the ROC government is the "sole legitimate government" administering Taiwan and representing it internationally.
He added that this established the cross-strait "status quo" in which the ROC (Taiwan) and the PRC exist as equals, with neither subordinate to the other.
Chinese officials have repeatedly asserted that the 1943 Cairo Declaration and 1945 Potsdam Declaration are two historical documents which prove that China has jurisdiction over Taiwan.
However, both documents only set the conditions for Japan's surrender, including forfeiting control of Taiwan and restoring it to the ROC.
The PRC was founded in 1949 following the Chinese Civil War, when the ROC government relocated to Taiwan.
The 1951 Treaty of San Francisco formalized Japan's renunciation of sovereignty over Taiwan, but it did not specify a recipient.
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