Document guided Japanese surrender of stolen territories

A document issued during World War II was a significant legal basis for China to have retrieved its territory, including Taiwan, after the war, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Thursday.

"The Cairo Declaration provided an important basis in international law for China to recover, after World War II, its territory, which had been robbed and stolen by Japanese militarism, including Taiwan and its affiliated islands," Geng said in a daily news conference in Beijing.

Commenting on reports that authorities in Taiwan will remove content related to the declaration from the new high school curriculum, Geng said the declaration is "universally acknowledged" and is "a major outcome gained in the World Anti-Fascist War".

In 1943, China, the United States and Britain issued the declaration, which said China's territory taken by Japan, including Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, should be returned to China.

The Potsdam Proclamation, a document signed two years later to urge Japan to surrender, said the declaration's terms "shall be carried out".

Geng said that the declaration established an important foundation for postwar international order. It is significant both historically and in reality, he said.

Geng emphasized that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and that the integrity of China's sovereignty and territory is not allowed to be segmented.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said on Wednesday that the historical facts and the legal ground for Taiwan's status as an inalienable part of China are "unassailable" and that any attempts to change such a status will "end in vain".