1943 Cairo Declaration
The Cairo Declaration (Template:Lang-zh) was the outcome of the Cairo Conference in Cairo, Egypt, on 27 November 1943. President Franklin Roosevelt of the United States, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China were present. The declaration developed ideas from the 1941 Atlantic Charter, which was issued by the Allies of World War II to set goals for the post-war order. The Cairo Communiqué was broadcast through radio on 1 December 1943.<ref name="cairo_communique">Template:Cite news</ref>
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Controversy as to Taiwan
The Cairo Declaration is cited in Clause Eight (8) of the Potsdam Declaration, which is referred to by the Japanese Instrument of Surrender.
Both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China have cited the Cairo Declaration as one of the bases for the One China principle that Taiwan and Penghu are part of Republic of China.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, some of the pro-independence advocates in Taiwan have not taken the same position on this matter, arguing instead that the Cairo Declaration was not binding, or gives the false impression that Taiwan and China should be unified like Germany of Vietnam.<ref>Hsiao-kuang, Shih and Chin, Jonathan. "KMT pans DPP for disputing retrocession legitimacy", Taipei Times (October 26, 2017): "The 1943 Cairo Declaration should be considered legally binding, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) said at a rally held by the KMT in Taipei to mark the 72nd Retrocession Day ... Those who dispute the validity of the Cairo Declaration should be dismissed as amateurs, Ma said, naming former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) of the DPP and former minister of education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝), an Academia Sinica historian."</ref><ref>Wang, Chris. "Cairo Declaration as legal basis incorrect: advocates", Taipei Times (December 2, 2013): "Since [President] Ma took the same position on the declaration as Beijing, which cited it as the legal basis for Taiwan's return to China, he is risking two important issues, said Vincent Chen (陳文賢), a professor at National Chengchi University's Graduate Institute of Taiwan History. ... '[Ma's] adherence to the one-China framework could, in the long run, create a false perception among the international community that Taipei and Beijing would follow the post-World War II unification models of Vietnam and Germany and unify in the future,' he said."</ref>
Due to the Chinese Civil War that immediately broke out after WWII, it became unclear which Chinese government Taiwan should be returned to. The government of the United States considers the declaration a statement of intention and never formally implemented.<ref name="mercury">Template:Cite book</ref> In November 1950, the United States Department of State said that no formal act restoring sovereignty over Formosa and the Pescadores to China had yet occurred.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Similarly, in February 1955, Winston Churchill stated that the Cairo Declaration "contained merely a statement of common purpose" and the question of Taiwan's future sovereignty was left undetermined by the Japanese peace treaty.<ref name="NY">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> British officials reiterated this viewpoint in May 1955.<ref name="Hansard">Template:Citation</ref>
In March 1961, then-Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs responded that:
On the other hand, then-ROC president Ma Ying-jeou cited a series of instruments beginning with the Cairo Declaration and stated in 2014:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Controversy as to Korea
Many prominent Koreans in the Korean independence movement, including Kim Ku and Syngman Rhee, were initially delighted by the declaration, but later noticed and became infuriated by the phrase "in due course". They took it to be an affirmation of Allied intent to place Korea into a trusteeship, rather than granting it immediate independence. There was significant concern that the trusteeship could be indefinite or last decades, making Korea functionally again a colony under a great power.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The phrase "in due course" was not present in the first draft; it originally read "at the earliest possible moment after the downfall of Japan". The US suggested "at the proper moment", and finally the British "in due time". Exact motivations for these changes are unclear.<ref name=":0" />
See also
- Cairo Conference (1943)
- Potsdam Declaration (July 1945)
- General Order No. 1 (August 1945)
- Japanese Instrument of Surrender (September 1945)
- Korea Retrocession (August 1945)
- Taiwan Retrocession (October 1945)
- Treaty of San Francisco (1951)
- Cairo Declaration (film)
References
External links
- Text of the Cairo Communiqué in the Japanese National Diet Library
- FRUS1943 Cairo Conference University of Wisconsin Digital Collection
- Cairo Declaration Department of State
- Cairo Declaration Yale University
- Template:Cite news
- Template:Cite news (This source has a picture of the full newspaper article, including the continuation on page 4 of the original paper, which the nytimes.com source wouldn't show without membership)