日本外务省主张，战后日本领土范围由1952年生效的《旧金山和约》决定，而《开罗宣言》和《波茨坦公告》则"不能对日本的领土处理形成最终的法律效果"。

Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs holds that its territorial scope is determined by the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1952, and that the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation cannot place legal restrictions on Japan's territory.

这是日本政府对战后国际法及国际秩序的公然否定，推翻了1945年日本政府在投降书中所作承诺，性质恶劣。1951年《旧金山和约》排除中华人民共和国政府参与，从未得到新中国政府的承认。中国的领土主权当然不能由美日两国的任何条约和协定来决定。同年9月18日，时任中国外长周恩来发表声明表示："美国政府在旧金山会议中强制签订的没有中华人民共和国参加的对日单独和约，……中央人民政府认为是非法的，无效的，因而是绝对不能承认的。"

This is a public denial of international law, which negates the promises Japan made in its formal document of surrender in 1945. In the meantime, the People's Republic of China was not a part of and never recognized the San Francisco Peace Treaty signed in 1951. China's sovereignty cannot be determined by a treaty between Japan and the U.S. On Sept. 18, 1951, then Chinese Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai stated that China considers the treaty illegal and void, as it failed to involve China. For that reason, China will never acknowledge it.

针对1971年美日达成"归还冲绳协定"擅自将钓鱼岛划入归还日本的区域，中国外交部于同年12月30日发表声明谴责：这是对中国领土主权的明目张胆的侵犯。中国人民绝对不能容忍。中国政府表示，将钓鱼岛纳入"归还区域"完全是非法的。更何况，即便是《旧金山和约》第三条，其中也根本没有提及钓鱼岛或所谓"尖阁诸岛"。

In 1971, Japan and the U.S. signed the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, which provided that any and all powers of administration over the Ryukyu Islands and Diaoyu Island would be "returned" to Japan. On December 30, 1971, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement pointing out that the agreement was a flagrant violation of China's sovereignty and would never be tolerated by the Chinese people. "It is completely illegal for the government of the U.S. and Japan to include China's Diaoyu Island as part of the territories to be returned to Japan in the Okinawa Reversion Agreement," read a statement from the Chinese government. In addition, Diaoyu Island was never even mentioned in Article 3 of the San Francisco Peace Treaty.