The Republic of Formosa 1895 and International Law related issues

In 1894, following the First Sino-Japanese War, Qing Empire ceded Taiwan and Penghu to Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki. To prevent the governance of Japenese, Taiwan officials and gentry established the Republic of Formosa. After a few months of resistance the Republic still collapsed. Whether the Republic of Formosa a country is controversial, this article tried to use the concept of intertemporal law to observe the international law of that time and examed the statehood of the Republic in modern international law. This article is in the view that the government of Republic of Formosa had independence, because the declaration of independence in accordance with formal independence and the tributary system explaned the words honored the Qing Empire thus meet the requirements of actual independence. But the effectiveness of government of the Republic of Formosa seemed insufficient, it may be in the period of States in Statu nascendi.
Statehood in States in Statu nascendi is not firmly established, in this kind of period recognition can be a powerful evidence of statehood, the non-recognition could even negate it. But according to the declaratory theory the Republic of Formosa was exist in fact, thus the international person of the Republic of Formosa might exist as well, just couldn’t proved by other contrys’ recognition.