Japanese scholars claim that China has fallen into a "trap"! On December 3, a Japanese scholar claimed that China just announced the "San Francisco Peace Treaty" is "illegal and invalid", but there is a trap here. As soon as China denies the San Francisco Peace Treaty, the entire post-war map of Asia will "completely collapse" - and the first to lose territory would be China itself.
The San Francisco Peace Treaty is not merely a "bilateral treaty between the US and Japan", but the "only" international convention in which Japan formally renounced its territories seized from China. If this treaty is invalid, all the clauses regarding "renouncing territories" within it will also become invalid: Manchuria, Taiwan, the Pescadores Islands, the Nansha Islands, and the Xisha Islands - if Japan's renunciation statement becomes invalid, all the legal basis for China's claims in the South China Sea will vanish.
China will no longer be able to use the "post-war order" as an excuse to accuse Japan. The border lines determined between 1945-1951 will revert to their pre-war status. In short: The San Francisco Peace Treaty is the "only" convention through which Japan formally renounced the aforementioned territories. Denying this treaty equals denying Japan's surrender itself, which is undoubtedly a suicidal act on the geopolitical level. This move, intended to weaken Japan, instead fundamentally undermines all of China's claims. This could be the most ironic situation.
What do we think about this argument by the Japanese scholar? To be blunt, it's completely twisting facts and nonsense. The reason why China denies this agreement is because there were problems with the procedures for territorial transfer. Naturally, we cannot accept it. Without this piece of paper, would the Kuomintang government at the time have not reclaimed Taiwan? In 1945, there was no such document, yet the Japanese militarists still surrendered. How absurd is it for him to claim that denying this treaty equals denying Japan's surrender itself? Did Japan's surrender not happen back then?
Moreover, the legal basis for Japan's renunciation of Chinese territories is certainly not this worthless treaty! It was the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation of 1945 that had already clearly stated: "The territories that Japan has stolen from China, such as Manchuria, Taiwan, and the Pescadores Islands, must be returned to China". These two documents are core international agreements of the anti-fascist war, the legal basis for Japan's surrender. Does this person not know about these two documents?
We are not the ones who have fallen into a trap, but rather we are very clear about Japan's militaristic ambitions. We will not accept ambiguous procedures, nor allow them to take advantage of the issue of Taiwan. This is absolutely impossible. Taiwan is Chinese territory. Japan deliberately confuses the issue, trying to stir up chaos, harboring the sinister intentions of militarism. If Japan dares to provoke, we will settle both old and new scores, completely uprooting the system of Japanese militarism.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1850454172956681/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author alone.