US House leader Herny Hyde arrives today

US House Representative Henry Hyde is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan today, his first trip to the country since Taipei broke off diplomatic ties with the US in 1979.

Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, will be accompanied by a 34-member delegation, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The congressman is scheduled to give a speech on Friday. According to a press release from the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington's de facto embassy in Taipei, Hyde will talk about democracy in a Chinese society.

The statement said that Hyde believes the US should defend Taiwan because the country's experience as a democracy can serve as an inspiration to China.

"Taiwan's mere existence as a prosperous and stable Chinese democracy is a challenge to the regime in Beijing, because it is proof that its propaganda about the impossibility of democracy in China is false," the statement said, excerpting remarks from Hyde's planned speech.

"Instead of backing away from Taiwan, we should hold its democracy up as an inspiring example to all of China," the statement said.

Hyde said that the US had a duty to come to Taiwan's defense should its democracy be threatened.

"We must protect it, not because we have a duty to come to the defense of freedom, but because it provides tangible hope that the world's largest nation, with its ancient and profound civilization, will one day enter the ranks of the free nations of the world," the statement said.

Hyde will give the speech at the invitation of Jeffrey Koo (辜濂松), chairman of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce and one of Taiwan's ambassadors-at-large.

Tomorrow morning Hyde is scheduled to meet former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) at the Grand Hotel.

Also tomorrow, the congressman's datebook includes visits with Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Hung-mao (田弘茂) and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) will host a dinner for the delegation at the Grand Formosa Regent Taipei.