US says China spreads 'false' World War Two narratives to pressure Taiwan

TAIPEI (Reuters) -China is intentionally mischaracterising World War Two-era documents to put pressure on and isolate Taiwan given those agreements made no determination of the island's ultimate political status, the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei said.

The 80th anniversary of the war's end has been marked by a bitter dispute between Taipei and Beijing on its broader historical meaning and relevance today.

The Beijing government says documents like the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation support its legal claims of sovereignty over the island, as the wording states Taiwan was to be "restored" to Chinese rule, Taiwan being a Japanese colony at the time.

The Chinese government at the time was the Republic of China, which then in 1949 fled to Taiwan after losing a subsequent civil war with Mao Zedong's communists.

Republic of China remains Taiwan's formal name, and its government says no World War Two agreements made any mention of Mao's People's Republic of China because it did not exist then, thus Beijing has no right to claim Taiwan now.

"China intentionally mischaracterises World War Two-era documents, including the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation, and the Treaty of San Francisco, to try to support its coercive campaign to subjugate Taiwan," the American Institute in Taiwan said in an statement emailed to Reuters on Monday.

"Beijing's narratives are simply false, and none of these documents determined Taiwan's ultimate political status." 

The San Francisco Peace Treaty was signed by Japan in 1951 renouncing its claims to Taiwan, though the island's sovereignty is left unresolved in it. Beijing says the treaty is "illegal and invalid" given it was not a party to it.

The United States ended official ties with Taipei in 1979 when it recognised Beijing, but remains the island's most important international backer.

Washington follows a "one China policy" under which it officially takes no position on Taiwan's sovereignty and only acknowledges China's position on the subject.

"False legal narratives are part of Beijing's broader campaign to try to isolate Taiwan from the international community and constrain the sovereign choices of other countries regarding their interactions with Taiwan," added the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. embassy.

China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 3 oversaw a massive military parade in Beijing to mark the war anniversary.

Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung expressed his thanks for the U.S. mission's statement.

"Our country and the People's Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and the People's Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan in the international community," Lin said in a statement.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)