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| | Treaty of Shimonoseki |
 | | For the people in Taiwan, the Shimonoseki Treaty is a significant event, because it marks a major milestone in Taiwan's evolution towards an independent nation state. |
 | | At the time of the Shimonoseki Treaty, China's claim on Taiwan was tenuous at best: only a few years earlier, in 1887, the Ching dynasty -- fearing Japanese expansion towards the south -- had declared the island a province of the Manchu Empire. |
 | | Thus, the Shimonoseki Treaty holds symbolic significance for the Taiwanese, and to commemorate the event, the Taiwan Association of University Professors organized a "Farewell to China" march in downtown Taipei on 16 April 1995. |
| www.taiwandc.org /hst-1895.htm (781 words) |
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