Ma the Ideologue Peeks Out Again

Yesterday the Taipei Times reported on President Ma Ying-jeou's public reiteration of longstanding KMT catechism: the Treaty of Taipei gave Taiwan to the Republic of China:

The Sino-Japanese Treaty is a treaty verified by international law that clearly states that Taiwan was returned to the Republic of China (ROC), President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday.

Ma made the remarks at an exhibition held by the Academia Historica and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs marking the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Sino-Japanese Treaty, also known as the Treaty of Taipei.

Ma said that according to the Cairo Declaration jointly issued by the ROC, the US and Britain on Dec. 1, 1943, Article 8 of the Potsdam Declaration, issued on July 26, 1945, and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, all three stated clearly that after World War II, Japan agreed to return what was then known as Manchuria, including current-day Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, Taiwan (Formosa), and Penghu (the Pescadores) to the ROC.

Taiwandocuments.org, that fine repository of the pieces of paper that define Taiwan's status, has the Treaty of Taipei on file. You can read it yourself -- it is very clearly subordinate to the San Francisco Peace Treaty, under which Japan gave up Taiwan but no recipient is named. Ma also instances two ROC favorites, Cairo and Potsdam. The last time Ma did this, I explained why these claims about the Cairo Declaration are rank nonsense. Nothing has changed since then.....

It's not very interesting to have yet another iteration of the same nonsense from a ranking KMT member assault the ears, but all good propagandists know that propaganda must be repeated if it is to have any effect. More interesting is, once again, what it reveals about Ma, the pro-China ideologue (here, for example)  -- as well as the impotence of this discourse, its essentially pro forma nature...

Remember when Ma was the cool, pragmatic leader in the fawning media reports? Yeah, that discourse has gone down the memory hole.....

UPDATE: A friend reminded me of J Tkacik's letter in the TT from 2009:

ROC foreign minister Yeh explained this provision in Legislative Yuan interpellations, noting that the Taipei treaty made “no provision ... for the return [of Taiwan and the Penghus] to China.” He asserted, instead, that the ROC had “de facto” control of the islands, and therefore, “Inasmuch as these territories were originally owned by us and as they are now under our control … they are, therefore, in fact restored to us.” Still, he had to admit that “no provision has been made either in the San Francisco Treaty of Peace as to the future of Taiwan and Penghu.”

This raised anxieties among the legislators during the Legislative Yuan interpellations on the Taipei Treaty who bluntly demanded to know: “What is the status of Formosa and the Pescadores?” He replied: “The delicate international situation makes it that they do not belong to us. Under present circumstances, Japan has no right to transfer Formosa and the Pescadores to us; nor can we accept such a transfer from Japan even if she so wishes.”

COOL STUFF: Taiwan-based professional photographer Craig Ferguson has opened a Facebook page for Taiwan professional photographers.

JUST FOR FUN: Raunchy graffitti from the ruins of Pompeii, faithfully and lovingly translated.

EVENTS: Don't miss the annual Perseid meteor shower, which will peak on Aug. 11-12.
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