Former U.S. president set stage for two of globe’s worst flashpoints
Over at the downtown Chinese Canadian Cultural Centre, I’m speaking to a group of Chinese-Canadian friends and expecting a usual warm welcome.
With roughly 10% of Calgary’s population estimated to be made up of Chinese-Canadians, it’s always wise to stay in touch with such an influential segment of our community.
Yet this time, I don’t quite get the usual warm welcome.
So I started probing.
It seems it all goes back to my March 26 column “Bushwhacked” in which I detailed how President Jimmy Carter’s betrayal of the pro-western Shah of Iran in 1979 initially opened the way for the horrendous regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which has now led us to the fanatical regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who plans not only on getting nuclear weapons, but on unleashing 40,000 suicide bombers against the western democracies.
So what has this got to do with my Chinese-Canadian friends?
Well, they feel I neglected to document another of Carter’s great betrayals, that of tiny democratic Taiwan (Republic of China).
In 1971, President Richard Nixon faced reality by announcing the U.S. favoured admitting Communist China to the United Nations, but he also made it clear the Republic of China, a founding member of the UN, should also maintain its seat.
That was a fair decision, since, after all, Taiwan was not only an independent nation, but its government was, and still is, the only de facto legitimate government of all China, both the island and the mainland.
But in October 1971, the UN, while admitting Communist China to the international body, also craftily expelled Taiwan.
That did not stop Washington from still recognizing Taiwan as an independent nation.
Until Carter came to power.
Although a public opinion poll in 1978 showed almost 60% of Americans were opposed to Washington recognizing Beijing as the government of Communist China and abandoning Taiwan, Carter had other thoughts.
As Jonathan Manthorpe explains in his book Forbidden Nation (Palgrave/MacMillan) in the absolute dead of night on Dec. 16, 1978, Leonard Unger, American Ambassador to Taiwan, was pulled out of a pre-Christmas banquet in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan.
Unger was told from Washington the U.S. would establish full diplomatic relations with Beijing and recognition with Taiwan would be withdrawn immediately.
With that, Washington would also end its defence treaty with Taiwan.
Carter intended to throw democratic Taiwan to the dogs as of Jan. 1, 1979.
Manthorpe, a Canadian, and old friend of mine, reports in Forbidden Nation that Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping was so delighted with this betrayal he immediately celebrated with a glass of California champagne.
The Butchers of Beijing had got almost everything for which they had hoped.
Except in the midst of Carter’s perfidy, both the Senate and the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the ‘Taiwanese Relations Act’ committing the U.S. to defend Taiwan at any cost.
Then, Carter was denied a second term as Ronald Reagan barnstormed the nation and pulled off a huge upset victory.
With the nefarious Carter defeated, Reagan again promised all-out military support for Taiwan.
As did Reagan’s immediate successor, President George H.W. Bush Sr.
Here, it must be admitted, President Bill Clinton, for all his faults, also promised to defend Taiwan against any attack by Communist China.
Just last week President George W. Bush warned Chinese President Hu Jintao on his visit to Washington the military defence pact still stood.
Yet, even today, Communist China has 700 missiles aimed at Taiwan, and Beijing carries on a non-stop belligerent campaign of threat, warning it to unite with the mainland or expect the worst.
The bottom line is really this: Two of today’s major flashpoints—China threatening to annihilate Taiwan and Iraq threatening to annihilate Israel and spread bloodshed throughout the western world were legacies of Carter.
One can surmise had Democrats Al Gore or John Kerry won the presidency rather than Bush, both Afghanistan and Iraq would also be in the hands of America’s—and Canada’s—enemies.
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