The former US president, Mr Jimmy Carter, who made the shock decision 20 years ago to transfer US diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Communist China, got a predictably rough ride when he made his first visit to Taiwan this week. Mr Carter (75) made matters worse for himself by claiming that he did it for the good of democracy on the island of 20 million, to which the defeated Chiang Kaishek fled from the victorious Chinese Red Army in 1949.
This antagonised Taiwan's Foreign Minister, Mr Jason Hu, who yesterday scornfully dismissed Mr Carter's comments as "logical fallacies". He said the decision of the US president might actually have been far more damaging. "Taiwan's democratic, political and economic achievements are the fruits of our own efforts," Mr Hu said. "The severance of relations could have devastated us."
Mr Carter had revealed that transferring US recognition to Beijing was the biggest decision of his life and claimed that it was the key to Asia's security. Moreover, it had helped transform Taiwan into an affluent, pluralist society, he said. At the time, Taiwan was a US-protected dictatorship, but has since transformed itself into a thriving and free-wheeling democracy.
"The decision made in 1978 was a right one," Mr Carter said. "I think although the decision was not the cause of or the primary reason for the progress among the people of Taiwan, it was certainly a factor."
The decision to establish ties with mainland China, he added, was intended not only to ease tensions between mainland China and its neighbours but also to improve human rights in that country.
Taiwan officials also criticised Mr Carter for claiming during his three-day visit that he personally drafted the Taiwan Relations Act, which regulated unofficial relations between Washington and Taipei after the US switched its embassy to Beijing.
The US Congress was responsible, not the Carter White House, Taiwan Foreign Ministry officials said. They claimed that the former US president may have forgotten the episode, or may not remember it clearly.
At the end of his talk at the Institute, Mr Carter was confronted by Ms Annette Lu, a member of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, who said she has been "longing for this moment for 20 years." Mr Carter's decision to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan, she said, led to the cancellation of an election and later escalated into an incident where many opposition activists were arrested and sentenced to prison, which slowed Taiwan's democratisation.
Ms Lu said she forgave Carter's "mistake," but wanted an apology. Mr Carter declined to apologise, however.
Scores of illegal immigrants in Hong Kong yesterday renewed their protest against repatriation to the Chinese mainland after losing a key court case, as the authorities stepped up action against them. Around 200 protesters, including 17 whose appeal against deportation was quashed by the High Court, staged a sit-in outside government headquarters.