BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan's restoration to China is an outcome of the WWII victory and part and parcel of the postwar international order, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Monday.

Mao made the comment at a regular press briefing in response to remarks by head of the foreign affairs office of China's Taiwan region that after World War II, "the Treaty of San Francisco" took the place of political statements such as the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, and the treaty did not hand over Taiwan to the People's Republic of China (PRC).

"Those fact-distorting and misleading rhetorics once again lay bare the nefarious separatist nature of the Lai Ching-te authorities," Mao said, adding that a series of instruments with legal effect under international law, namely the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation, and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender and so on, all affirm China's sovereignty over Taiwan.

"Taiwan belongs to China. This is a solid fact rooted in history and the law and beyond any doubt," she noted.

Mao said on Oct. 1, 1949, the PRC was founded, and the Central People's Government became the sole legal government representing the whole of China, and the change of government took place while China remained unchanged as a subject of international law. China's sovereignty and inherent territory did not change. As a natural result, the government of the PRC fully enjoys and exercises China's sovereignty, including sovereignty over Taiwan, Mao added.

Noting that the so-called Treaty of San Francisco is an illegal and invalid instrument issued by some countries gathered by the United States years after the end of WWII to separately make peace with Japan without including the PRC and despite the Soviet Union's rejection, Mao said this document contravenes the provisions of the Declaration by United Nations signed by 26 countries including China, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union in 1942, and goes against the fundamental principles of the UN Charter and international law.

Anything set out in the document, including the sovereignty over Taiwan or the handling of the territory and sovereign rights of China as a non-signatory, is thus entirely illegal and null and void, the spokesperson said.

The Lai Ching-te authorities have completely forfeited the national stance, disregarded the outcomes of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, and deliberately distorted the history of WWII. This is simply contemptible, Mao said.

Mao stressed that no matter what the Lai Ching-te authorities say or do, they do not change the fact that Taiwan is part of China -- a fact well supported by history and the law, nor can they change the prevailing international commitment to the one-China principle, still less will they stop the course toward China's reunification. ■