BEIJING -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday the final agreement to switch diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China nearly three decades ago hinged on Deng Xiaoping privately acknowledging the United States would still sell weapons to Taiwan.
Carter established diplomatic and trade relations with China on Jan. 1, 1979, breaking relations with Taiwan and agreeing with Beijing that there was one China.
"I didn't know if the Chinese leaders would be willing to accept normal relationships with us if we maintained some relationships with Taiwan, and that was a very difficult issue," Carter told an audience in Beijing.
Carter, reading from diaries he wrote at the time, said negotiations with Deng proceeded slowly at first in the summer of 1977 until late 1978, and were kept secret from some in the U.S. State Department for fear of leaks, with proposals coming straight from the White House.
Carter said he was reading from the diaries in public for the first time. "The official documents have already been made public ... however, there is an additional story to be told," he said.
He said Deng understood that to finalize the deal, Beijing had to realize U.S. sales of defensive weapons to Taiwan, while not agreed to publicly, would be understood in private.
"He agreed with our statement that the Taiwan issue should be settled peacefully, would not be contradicted publicly by China and he understood we would sell defensive weapons to Taiwan after the (U.S.-Taiwan defense) treaty expires," Carter said.
"Publicly they are going to disapprove of this action but privately they had acknowledged that it would be done," he said.
Carter said the establishment of relations was also important to China's economic transformation, which started about the same time.
"Without normalization of relationships with the United States it would be very difficult for China to concentrate on economic development," he said.
The countries announced on Dec. 15, 1978, that they had agreed to establish relations after Deng accepted a U.S. communique.
"14 of December 1978, almost exactly 29 years ago, Vice Premier Deng surprisingly accepted our rare communique without any further commitments," Carter said.
He said he faced considerable domestic opposition toward what some viewed as abandoning Taiwan.
"Many people never forgave me for betraying our friends in Taiwan," he said. But he added he never regretted the decision, saying the U.S. had treated the Taiwanese people "fairly" by maintaining economic relations.
When Deng visited America in early 1979, he told Carter he had also faced considerable opposition in China to agreeing to establish relations because of the Taiwan issue.
Carter said he was very impressed with Deng Xiaoping during the visit. "He's small, tough, intelligent, frank, courageous, personable, self-assured and friendly -- it's a pleasure for me to negotiate with him," Carter read from his dairies.
Carter also met Wednesday with Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, who said the countries should work together against Taiwanese independence activists, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.