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U.S. statement denies China's sovereignty claim over Taiwan: VP Lu

ROC Central News Agency

2007-09-08 21:33:09

    Taipei, Sept. 8 (CNA) The United States has denied China's sovereignty claim over Taiwan by calling the status of Taiwan "an issue undecided," Vice President Annette Lu said Saturday.

    Lu, who made the remarks during an event promoting Taiwan's bid to join the United Nations, was referring to a statement made last week by Dennis Wilder, senior director for Asian affairs of the White House National Security Council, in which he said that "Taiwan, or the Republic of China, is not at this point a state in the international community" and that the position of the U.S. government is that the status of the ROC is "an issue undecided."

    According to Lu, Wilder's statement may sound unpleasant to Taiwan, but it exposes the People's Republic of China's lie to the world that it holds sovereignty over Taiwan.

    Lu noted that the Cairo Declaration of 1943, which called for Japan to return all the territories stolen from the Republic of China, including Manchuria, Formosa and the Pescadores, has been referred to by the PRC as the basis of its sovereignty claim over Taiwan since the ROC government led by Chiang Kai-shek was toppled by the Chinese communists and forced to move to Taiwan in 1949.

    However, the Cairo Declaration was virtually negated when the Japanese government signed a peace treaty with the ROC government in Taipei in 1952.

    According to Lu, the Treaty of Peace Between Japan and China and the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951-52 only dealt with the issue of Japan's ceding sovereignty over Taiwan and did not deal with the question of to whom Taiwan was to be handed over to.

    Lu claimed that in line with the Charter of the United Nations, the sovereignty of Taiwan certainly belongs to its residents.

    While it took 15 years for South Korea and North Korea to gain membership in the United Nations and 23 years for the PRC to replace the ROC in the world body, Taiwan has so far only worked on the U.N. bid for 13 years and must work harder to achieve the goal, Lu said.

    In particular, she said, this year marks the first time that President Chen Shui-bian has filed a membership application with the United Nations on behalf of "the country of Taiwan, " a cause which she said must be continued.

    Asked by the press to elaborate on the point, Lu noted that any applicant for U.N. membership is a country because U.N. membership is only open to countries, adding that Chen filed the application in the name of "the president of Taiwan."

    Rejecting the PRC's accusation that Taiwan is moving toward independence by bidding to join the United Nations, the government insists that Taiwan is a sovereign independent country known officially as the Republic of China and has no need to declare independence.

(By Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/Li