Question: Why does the Taiwan question bear on China's sovereignty and territorial integrity?

Spokesperson: Taiwan has belonged to China since ancient times. The records of the Chinese people developing Taiwan date back to as early as the Three Kingdoms period over 1,700 years ago. These are the world's earliest written account of Taiwan. Most of the ancestors of current residents in Taiwan emigrated from China’s mainland to Taiwan. The Chinese government of different periods in history set up administrative bodies exercising jurisdiction over Taiwan.

Taiwan has never been an independent country. It has been under effective governance of the Chinese government for most of the time, despite of being under colonial rule by foreign aggressors for short periods in the past. The last time Taiwan was under colonial rule was between 1895 and 1945. In April 1895, Japan forced the Qing government to sign the unequal Treaty of Shimonoseki and forcibly occupied Taiwan, which opened the prologue of Japan’s full-scale invasion to China in the 1930s and 1940s. In December 1941, the Chinese government issued the Proclamation of China's Declaration of War Against Japan, announcing to the world that all treaties, agreements and contracts concerning Sino-Japanese relations had been abrogated, and that China would recover Taiwan, Penghu and the four northeastern provinces. China’s solemn demand on recovering territories occupied by Japan was respected and supported by anti-fascist forces across the world. In December 1943, the Cairo Declaration was issued by the Chinese, US and British governments, stipulating that Japan should return to China all the territories it had stolen, including Northeast China, Taiwan and the Penghu Archipelago. The Potsdam Proclamation signed by China, the US and Britain in July 1945 (subsequently joined by the Soviet Union) stipulated that "The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out." In August of the same year, Japan announced its surrender and promised in its instrument of surrender that it would faithfully fulfill the obligations laid down in the Potsdam Proclamation. On 25 October, the Chinese government recovered Taiwan and the Penghu Archipelago, resuming the exercise of sovereignty over Taiwan. Taiwan returned to the embrace of the motherland.

On 1st October 1949, the Central People's Government of the People’s Republic of China was established, replacing the government of the Republic of China to become the sole legitimate government of the whole of China and its sole legal representative to the international community. The Republic of China thus ended its historical status. This is a replacement of the old regime by a new one in a situation where the main bodies of the same international laws have not changed and China's sovereignty and inherent territory have not changed therefrom, and as such, the government of the PRC fully enjoys and exercises China's sovereignty, including over Taiwan, as a matter of course.

Today’s Taiwan question is a legacy of China’s civil war. Since 1949, although the mainland and Taiwan have not yet reunified, the fact that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China has not changed, nor has China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. There is but one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. As China's internal affair, the Taiwan question should be resolved by the Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and no foreign forces have the right to interfere.