Scholar slams US betrayal of one-China principle

A Chinese scholar who recently appeared on a program with the Al Jazeera news network has slammed the US' violation of the one-China principle in allowing the meeting between Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Victor Gao, vice-president of think tank Center for China and Globalization, said on the "Inside Story" show that it's a universal principle that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of China. The so-called meeting of Tsai and McCarthy in California is a violation of the one-China policy.

June Teufel Dreyer, another guest on the show and professor of Political Science at the University of Miami, tried to deny China's sovereignty over Taiwan by saying that she supposes "Rome could lay claim to large parts of the world on the basis of the Roman Empire, but fortunately it is not foolish enough to do so."

In response to her remarks, Gao said he suggests for the guests to study history "because the United States has been talking about the world order since the end of the Second World War. The status of Taiwan, among other things, traces all the way back to the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Declaration."

The Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation have stipulated that the Chinese territory stolen by Japan, including Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, should be returned to China, clarifying China's sovereignty over Taiwan.

He went on to say it's ridiculous for one to "dictate which piece of territory is Chinese or not. You need to use international instruments. You need to use history. You need to use your common sense."

Dreyer then cited the illegal and invalid Treaty of San Francisco to deny Taiwan's status as part of China, claiming that instead of the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, it is the authoritative peace treaty.

Gao refuted by stating that she is not talking about the real legal status of the situation involving the island of Taiwan and suggested her to read the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, the cornerstone of the post-war international order.

Talking about what will happen each time the US violated the one-China policy, including Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August, he said "each violation, each provocation, will result in consequences that the United States will not be able to bear, because the United States will not send its soldiers to fight for the separatism and 'independence' of Taiwan."

This is "because the United States, ever since 1979, has legally and internationally acknowledged that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of China", he added.

Dreyer claimed that the US has not said it agrees with the People's Republic of China's one-China policy, which was dismissed by Gao. He said the US' commitment to the one-China principle is stated in the three communiqués, which form the basis of China-US relations.

The US' decision to abandon Taiwan, to withdraw all US troops from Taiwan, to cancel the US-Taiwan "diplomatic relations" and further abrogate the US-Taiwan defense treaty in 1979, he said, is made exactly for recognizing that the PRC as the sole legitimate representative of China, there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is part of China.