On the other hand , a number of supporters of Taiwan independence argue that Taiwan was only formally incorporated as a Chinese territory under the Qing Dynasty in 1683 , and as a province in 1885 . Subsequently , because of the Shimonoseki Treaty of 1895 , Taiwan had been '' de jure '' part of Japan when the ROC was established in 1912 and thus was not part of the Chinese republic . Also , because the Cairo Declaration was an unsigned press communiqué , the independence advocates argue that the legal effectiveness of the Declaration is highly questionable . Furthermore , they point out that the Instrument of Surrender of Japan was no more than an armistice , a " modus vivendi " in nature , which served as a temporary or provisional agreement that would be replaced with a peace treaty . Therefore , only a military occupation of Taiwan began on 25 October 1945 , and both the Treaty of San Francisco and Treaty of Taipei hold legal supremacy over the surrender instrument . These treaties did not transfer the title of Taiwan from Japan to China . According to this argument , the sovereignty of Taiwan was returned to the people of Taiwan when Japan renounced sovereignty of Taiwan in the Treaty of San Francisco ( also known as San Francisco Peace Treaty , SFPT ) in 1951 , based on the policy of self-determination which has been applied to " territories which detached from enemy states as a result of the Second World War " as defined by article 76b and 77b of the United Nations Charter and also by the protocol of the Yalta Conference . The United Nations General Assembly has not been particularly receptive to this argument , and the ROC 's applications for admission to the United Nations have been rejected 15 times
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
Political status of Taiwan