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 CASTRIES, St. Lucia (AP) - This tiny Caribbean island may have thought it was no big deal when it severed its 10-year relations with China and restored ties on Tuesday with rival Taiwan. Wrong.
China, which built a stadium and was finishing a psychiatric hospital here and considers Taiwan a renegade province, called the move a "brutal interference in China's internal affairs." In short order, one of the world's smallest nations has now made an enemy out of one of the largest.
Both Taiwan and China, which for more than 20 years have battled for diplomatic allies, brought out their big guns to curry favor with St. Lucia, a verdant, mountainous 240-square-mile island that is home to 168,000 people.
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