Rethinking the Taiwan Question

However, even at the height of the latter’s control over Taiwan, few credit the dynasty with controlling more than 45 percent of the island, the remainder held primarily by its Aboriginal people.8 In addition, China ceded Taiwan to Japan as part of the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. [...] This argues that the 1943 Cairo Dec- laration, the 1945 Potsdam Agreement, and the instruments of surrender for Japan directed that all the Chinese territory it had conquered, including Taiwan, be “restored” to the Republic of China (ROC) (Hsieh 2009, 61).9 With the flight of Chiang Kai-shek’s defeated ROC government and his Kuomintang (KMT) party to Taiwan. [...] According to the Taiwanese government’s counter-argu- ment, the PRC has not superseded it on Taiwan, where the ROC governed without interruption as a state separate from the mainland since 1949 (MOFA 2000).10 The third assertion in support of the PRC’s claim to sovereignty over Taiwan involves the claim that: Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, 157 countries have estab- lished di [...] In a similar vein, the Canadian foreign affairs officer sent to brief the committee declared the legislation “would empower Taipei to dictate an important part of Canada’s foreign policy agenda” and “could contribute to raising tensions” in the area (Canada 2005, 1115–1145).30 The potential damage would not end there, according to the official. [...] While no hard evidence sup- ports this claim, at the time of recognition the bureaucracy had to be mindful of the dangers of Canada being drawn into the regular PRC-Taiwan military conflicts with their continuing recognition of the ROC and the attendant possibility the US would call for our military sup- port.33 Thus, supporting the PRC over Taiwan may have appeared the safer short term bet for av