Taiwanese scholars are marking 75 years since the San Francisco Peace Treaty by arguing that Taiwan's status was never handed to China — a direct challenge to Beijing's claim.

• The 1951 treaty said only that Japan gave up Taiwan and Penghu, and never named who received them.
• The 1943 Cairo Declaration was a political statement, not a signed treaty, so it carried no legal force to transfer Taiwan to China.
• Britain told the Republic of China at the time that Cairo alone could not move sovereignty, and that a formal peace treaty was needed.
• The 1950 US declaration that the Taiwan Strait was neutral formally treated Taiwan's status as undecided, which gave Washington room to get involved.
• The core argument: Taiwan's future should be decided by the people who live there, and the issue must stay international rather than become China's internal affair.

Outlook: Expect Beijing to push back hard as Taipei uses the treaty anniversary to build a legal case for self-determination.