Taiwan and China

The one-China principle

Sir, – Taiwan has belonged to China since ancient times. In 1894, Japan launched a war of aggression against China and occupied Taiwan the next year. In 1945, when Japan was defeated at the end of the second World War, Taiwan was put back under China’s sovereign jurisdiction.

The Taiwan question of today is a legacy of the Chinese civil war of the late 1940s. However, China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity have never been divided, and the fact that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China and that Taiwan is part of China has never changed.

UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 adopted in 1971 makes it clear that there is but one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory. The one-China principle represents the universal consensus of the international community. All the 181 countries which have diplomatic relations with China, including Ireland, abide by the one-China principle. – Yours, etc,

ZHAO MENGTAO,

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Director, First Secretary,

Political and Press Section,

Chinese Embassy in Ireland,

Ballsbridge,

Dublin 4,