公告 2013-9-6
台灣民政府
曾根憲昭 主席 華盛頓DC 四季飯店 公開宣言
Taiwan Civil Government
The Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC Soiree
September 5, 2013
Honorable and Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all, I would like to wish you a warm welcome to this soiree hosted by the Taiwan Civil Government. We appreciate very much your concern for the Taiwan affairs, which, we believe, are closely related to the United States and Japan from the legal point of view.
As the ancient proverb says, "where there is a will there is a way."
Being inspired by President Reagan's saying: "The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave."
Three years ago on September 8, 2010, based upon the will of the brave people of Taiwan, a soiree was held at this Four Seasons to celebrate the opening of the Washington, DC office of the Taiwan Civil Government, paving the way for normalizing the legal status of Taiwan in accord with American interests.
As this occasion is concerned with "Taiwan", we have to know what "Taiwan" is after all.
As a matter of fact, conceptually there are two "Taiwans", one is politically defined under the Taiwan Relations Act and associated with the United States and the Republic of China; the other is legalistically derived from the San Francisco Peace Treaty and associated with the United States and Japan.
Although Taiwan is only a small island on earth, the problems and questions incurred following Japan's surrender on September 2, 1945 are unprecedented and come out to be the most complicated case in the international laws, basically stemming from the American misperception that "Taiwan is a former Japanese colony in the process of detachment", as said by Mr. John Foster Dulles in answer to the Soviet complaint of "American aggression against China" in September, 1950.
Unlike the islands of Puerto Rico and Guam remain unincorporated territories of the United States, Taiwan has been decolonized so as to constitute an integral part of Japan under the Law of Nations by the application of the Meiji Constitution through Showa Emperor's Rescript of granting political rights to the inhabitants of Taiwan as the Japanese subjects since April 1, 1945, which is the L-Day when the Battle of Okinawa began and might have been either ignored or neglected of by the Government of the United States since then.
Tonight we come here to talk about the legal entanglements among the United States, Japan, and Taiwan under the San Francisco Peace Treaty as a result of the Pacific War.
Let me begin with the lawsuit case of Roger C.S. Lin and others versus the United States of America filed on October 24, 2006. Although the United States Supreme Court denied this case, some invaluable messages released by the honorable judges are described as follows:
1. Referring to the court ruling from the United States District Judge Rosemary Collyer, it was stated in the text of decision concerning the legal status of Formosan plaintiffs issued on March 18, 2008:
"Plaintiffs have essentially been persons without a state for almost 60 years. .... One can understand and sympathize with Plaintiffs' desire to regularize their position in the world."
2. Opinion for the United States Court of Appeals filed by Circuit Judge Brown on April 7, 2009:
"America and China’s tumultuous relationship over the past sixty years has trapped the inhabitants of Taiwan in political purgatory. During this time the people on Taiwan have lived without any uniformly recognized
government. In practical terms, this means they have uncertain status in the world community which infects the population’s day-to-day lives. This pervasive ambiguity has driven Appellants to try to concretely define their national identity and personal rights."
Within this context, we, the people of Taiwan, being sufferers, have no right to pessimism thus set up the Taiwan Civil Government under the laws and usages of war and formally made known to the U.S. authorities in the soiree held on September 8, 2010.
Now, I would like to share with you some viewpoints on the Legal status of Taiwan as a conclusion scrupulously derived from the historical and legal facts:
1. While the Government of Japan renounced any claims to Taiwan in the postwar Peace Treaties, de jure sovereignty over Taiwan still remains with the Emperor of Japan under the Law of Nations with the United States of America as the principal occupying Power under the San Francisco Peace Treaty due to the facts of conquest under the laws and usages of war.
It is stipulated in Article 11 of "Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States":
"The territory of a state is inviolable and may not be the object of military occupation nor of other measures of force imposed by another state directly or indirectly or for any motive whatever even temporarily.
As a matter of fact, the existing legal status of Taiwan is that of "an occupied Japanese territory" under the Chinese colonial administration, which is now the governing authorities on Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act. The prevailing American mindset on Taiwan as a former Japanese colony make the Taiwan question just unsolvable."
2. It is requested that the United States of America as the principal occupying Power of Japan terminate the US proxy occupation of Taiwan by ROC Chinese colonial regime and exercise the rights of sovereignty over Taiwan by the United States military government as early as possible to protect human rights of the people of Taiwan and eventually to assume the responsibility for restoring Taiwan to its normal status as the unfinished legal business through international processes under the international laws.
On January 21, 2013, the day that President Obama was sworn in for a second term, the Taiwan Civil Government requested to the U.S. Government through an advertisement in the Washington Post for issuance of the Certificates of Identity, in the name of the U.S. military authorities, as the Travel Documents for the people of Taiwan.
On February 22, 1972, in the meeting with Chinese Premier Chou, President Nixon said :
In terms of world peace, I would say that a strong China is in the interests of World peace at this point.
President Nixon's strategy to cooperate with China to block the Soviet Union might be reasonable during the Cold War era. However, the world turns as time goes along. With the emergence of China as a global power and the reconciliation between the Chinese Nationalists and the Chinese Communists, a breach in the first island chain is evolving.
From a strategic point of view, a strong Japan is supposed to be in the interests of World peace, which is also in America's interests in the 21st century. Within this context, restoring Taiwan to its normal status as an integral part of Japan under the Law of Nations becomes indispensable to peace and security in the Western Pacific.
On November 16, 1950, in a meeting concerning "The Question of Formosa", Mr. John Foster Dulles stated several basic principles which the United States would consider as appropriate framework for a plan to solve the Formosa question. Item one says that "the United States, as a principal victor of the war in the Pacific and as the sole occupying power of Japan has great responsibility in the disposition of Formosa."
President Obama as the successor of President Truman, who conquered the Empire of Japan in 1945, is supposed to be the key person who has the absolute responsibility, hence the justifiable position to solve the long-existing question on the legal status of Taiwan.
At the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the Memorial Site inscription reads:
"I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and there is purpose and worth to each and every life."
We believe that we are doing the right thing, and we will do it right.
Last but not least, thank you for coming and listening. Everyone who attends this soiree is just great and respectable. Hope you enjoy the delicious food and have a nice evening.
God bless you all
台灣民政府 主席 曾根 憲昭
2013年9月5日於華府四季飯店
