A toast to Taiwan
The representative of 1.2 billion Chinese found himself manhandled on the White House lawn on Thursday by the so-called leader of the free world.
But that — and screaming protesters — were not the worst indignities Mr. Hu had to endure: in another protocol gaffe, China’s national anthem was announced as the anthem of “the Republic of China.”
This brings to mind a Norwegian official visit to China sometime around 1980, during which the PM, at the formal banquet, called a toast to the Republic of China. And so it was that a dining hall of Communist cadres were forced to drink to independent Taiwan.
I fondly think of that as an unintended high spot of Norwegian diplomacy.
