As a pre-condition for building ties with the PRC, Japan and made the Treaty of Taipei in relation to then non-recognized Taiwan polity. According to the "1972 Japan–China Joint Communiqué", the Japanese government fully understood and respected the position of the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) that Taiwan was an inalienable territory of the PRC, and it firmly maintained its stand under Article 8 of the Potsdam Proclamation, which stated "The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine."