<
https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-complex-question-of-taiwanese-independence-188584>
"“Strategic ambiguity” – the policy that has underpinned the West’s defence of
Taiwan for half a century or more – rests on another ambiguity: Taiwan’s status
in international law. And that status matters because it could help us answer
three questions:
* does China have a legal right to restore control over its own territory by
force?
* do Taiwan and its allies have a legal right to resist such an attack?
* might Taiwan even have the right to declare independence?
The islands we know as Taiwan have been inhabited for 30,000 years, including
by successive waves of peoples from mainland China. Taiwan was subject to
partial Dutch and Spanish colonisation from the early 17th century, was partly
controlled by the remnants of the mainland Ming dynasty from 1661, then
colonised by the mainland Qing dynasty from 1683. The main island was
incorporated as a Chinese province in 1887.
After the first Sino-Japanese war of 1894–95, Taiwan was ceded by treaty to
Japan. (At the time, and up until 1928, a country could legally acquire
sovereignty over foreign territory by war or colonisation.) Then, after Japan’s
defeat in 1945, the United Nations placed Taiwan under the control of the
Republic of China. The ROC, founded in 1912, was led by the nationalist
Kuomintang, a wartime ally of major Western countries.
Japan renounced its claim to Taiwan under the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty,
but neither that agreement nor any other resolved the future sovereignty of
Taiwan. However, in the non-binding Cairo Declaration of 1943, the allied
powers had agreed Taiwan would be returned to the ROC."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
