Beijing has accused Tokyo of attempting to “mislead the public and hope that somehow the issue would resolve itself”, after Japan’s foreign minister selectively quoted its position on Taiwan from a joint communique that was the foundation of establishing diplomatic ties with mainland China in 1972.
On Tuesday, the Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing had noted Motegi’s reiteration of relevant clauses regarding the issue of Taiwan.
02:49
China reveals radio communications heard before mid-air stand-off with Japanese fighters
China reveals radio communications heard before mid-air stand-off with Japanese fighters
“But we also noted that the Japanese side did not reiterate the Japanese government’s recognition that the government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government of China, or that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China,” spokesman Guo Jiakun said during a ministry briefing.
Guo said Beijing also noted that when citing the Cairo Declaration, the Japanese side mentioned northeast mainland China, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands but “deliberately sidestepped the important information that they are ‘territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese’”.
The Cairo Declaration, signed in November 1943, says: “It is their [China, Britain and the US’] purpose that Japan shall be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the first world war in 1914, and that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa and The Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China.”
Taiwan was commonly known as Formosa at the time and the Republic of China was the name for China before the Communist Party beat the Kuomintang and founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The Pescadores are also known as Penghu, a group of islands about 50km (31 miles) west of Taiwan’s main island.
Guo said that this, along with a mention of the San Francisco Peace Treaty – which Beijing does not recognise – attempted to “revive the undetermined status of [the] Taiwan question and interfere in China’s internal affairs”.
