Tze-chung Li
The dispute that China and Taiwan and Japan all claim sovereignty over the
islands has been for decades. But it is the U.S. who has intentionally
or unintentionally caused the dispute.
Diaoyu islands are part of China and during the Japanese occupation
of Taiwan, they were under the jurisdiction of Taiwan. The island of Formosa
[Taiwan], together with all islands appertaining or belonging to Formosa,
was ceded from China to Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895,
The 1945 Potsdam Declaration provides the terms of the Cairo Declaration
shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands
of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we [United
States, Great Britain, and China] determine. These terms were accepted by
Japan in her Surrender Instrument of 1945.
The 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan stipulates that Japan renounces
all right, title and claim to Formosa and the Pescadores. The treaty was
followed by the 1952 Treaty of Peace between the Republic of China and Japan.
Furthermore, the 1952 treaty stipulates that all treaties, conventions,
and agreements concluded before 9 December 1941 between Japan and China have
become null and void as a consequence of the war. The Shimonoseki treaty
noted above by which Taiwan and other islands were ceded to Japan becomes
null and void. Therefore, Taiwan and all islands entertaining or belonging
to Taiwan should be returned to China as a matter of course.
In the 1970s, the U.S. unilaterally turned over the Diaoyu islands
administrative control though not sovereignty to Japan. The transfer of
control which causes the dispute is a clear violation of the Potsdam Declaration
and peace treaty and a disappointed departure from U.S. commitment.
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