• DOI:10.1177/106591295701000203
• Corpus ID: 154997093

The International Legal Status of Formosa1

@article{Phillips1957TheIL,
  title={The International Legal Status of Formosa1},
  author={Claude Sir Phillips},
  journal={Political Research Quarterly},
  year={1957},
  volume={10},
  pages={276 - 289}
}

• C. Phillips
• Published 1 June 1957
• History
• Political Research Quarterly

UMEROUS statements, official and unofficial, have been made in the past ten years purporting to describe the legal status of Formosa. It has been charged that Chaing Kai-shek has no claim to the island because he is "merely a fugitive quartering his army" there and besides, his is a government-in-exile.2 A reputable journalist maintains that "Chiang is juridically sovereign where he does not rule and he is not sovereign where he does." 3 Another famous journalist asks the question: "How many know ... that Formosa doesn't belong to Nationalist China any more than it does to Red China?" 4 Arthur H. Dean has suggested that Formosa is unclaimed territory (terra nullius);5 both the governments of Nationalist China and Communist China claim, as did President Truman in 1945, that Formosa is Chinese territory "liberated" by World War II;6 and President Eisenhower has stated that Formosa is "in the friendly hands of our loyal ally, the Republic of China." 7 These views all suggest a legal as well as political issue, and it is the purpose of this article to discuss some of the legal aspects.8 It is not sug-