Experts warn Takaichi's Taiwan remarks distort history, undermine post-war order

International experts and Japanese commentators have sharply criticized Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi after she recently invoked the "San Francisco Peace Treaty" to justify her statements on Taiwan, warning the move exacerbates diplomatic tensions and undermines the political foundation of China–Japan relations.

Takaichi claimed that under the "San Francisco Peace Treaty," Japan "is not in a position to determine or recognize the legal status of Taiwan." In response, China immediately rejected the argument, stating that the treaty was a document devised to collude with Japan, excluding key World War II belligerents such as China and the Soviet Union. Furthermore, China argued that it violates the provision prohibiting separate peace with enemy states, as stipulated in the Declaration by United Nations signed by 26 countries – including China, the US, the UK, and the Soviet Union – in 1942, as well as the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and basic norms of international law.

China stressed that any disposition under this treaty involving China's territorial and sovereign rights as a non-signatory state, including the determination of Taiwan's sovereignty, is illegal and invalid.

Su Xiaohui, associate research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, pointed out that earlier documents such as the Cairo Declaration, Potsdam Proclamation and Japan's instrument of surrender had already affirmed China's sovereignty over Taiwan. She said Takaichi's renewed emphasis on the treaty contradicts the four political documents that underpin China–Japan relations and represents a challenge to the post-war international order.

International experts uniformly characterized Takaichi's remarks as dangerous and irresponsible.

Takakage Fujita, secretary-general of the Association for Inheriting and Propagating the Murayama Statement, said the Taiwan question is China's internal affair and that the 1972 Japan-China Joint Communique clearly affirmed this. He called Takaichi's comments "extremely problematic and foolish."

Fabio Marcelli, director of the Institute for International Legal Studies at the National Research Council (CNR) in Italy, described Takaichi's remarks as troubling and very dangerous, warning that they threaten the UN Charter system – based on the peaceful coexistence of nations – and contradict the common desire for peace shared by the global community, including the Japanese people.

Sizo Nkala, a researcher at the University of Johannesburg, condemned Takaichi's statements, including any implied threats of armed intervention, saying they violate international law and infringe upon China's sovereignty.

Katerina Konecna, Member of the European Parliament and Chairwoman of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, emphasized that Japan must recognize Taiwan as an inalienable part of China. "If Japan refuses to acknowledge this, international law becomes nothing more than an empty document," she said.