Document issued following the Cairo Conference (November 22-26, 1943). This document, along with the Postdam Proclamation which reinforces it, are among the 2 biggest claims that mainland China makes to Taiwan. However, debate rages whether or not the declaration is legally equivalent to a international treaty because international law only recognizes mutual peace treaties that have been signed by the parties at war.
The document more or less states that the Allies were to strip Japan of all territory aquired since 1895. Perhaps the biggest question is why "all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese" was specifically stated only at the only Allied conference that Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek was involved in and nowhere else.
Released December 1, 1943
The several military missions have agreed upon future military operations against Japan. The Three Great Allies expressed their resolve to bring unrelenting pressure against their brutal enemies by sea, land, and air. This pressure is already mounting.
The Three Great Allies are fighting this war to restrain and punish the aggression of Japan. They covet no gain for themselves and have no thought of territorial expansion.
It is their purpose that Japan shall be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the First World War in 1914, and that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and the Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China.
Japan will also be expelled from all other territories which she has taken by violence and greed. The aforesaid three great powers, mindful of the enslavement of the people of Korea, are determined that in due course Korea shall become free and independent.
With these objects in view the three Allies, in harmony with those of the United Nations at war with Japan, will continue to persevere in the serious and prolonged operations necessary to procure the unconditional surrender of Japan.
[Released Without Signatures]
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