China slammed the planned visit by the speaker of the Czech lower house, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, to Taiwan in March, calling it a ‘wrongful decision’.
The Chinese government has urged Adamová to cancel her trip, Reuters reported on Thursday. China resolutely opposes countries with which it has diplomatic ties engaging in official exchanges with Taiwan.
Adamová announced her plan to visit Taiwan with a delegation of entrepreneurs on Wednesday.
It would not be the first time that a representative of the Czech Parliament has visited Taiwan. In 2020, the President of the upper chamber, the Senate, Miloš Vystrčil (ODS) did so. Earlier this week, the Beijing government was critical of a phone call made by Czech President-elect Petr Pavel to Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen.
Although the Czech Republic officially adheres to the one-China policy, its representatives stress that Taiwan shares the same democratic values and will therefore talk to it as a partner.
“As a sovereign state, we decide who we call and who we meet with. We also need to respect that China is a major Asian trading partner. We have traditionally had good economic, educational and research relations with democratic Taiwan. We continue our tradition and point out the need to protect common democratic values,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) wrote to the Czech News Agency on Tuesday.
The only exception was the outgoing President Miloš Zeman, who was known for his strongly pro-Chinese views and visited Beijing several times during his ten years in office.
The arrival of Petr Pavel now brings a 180-degree turn of opinion to the presidency and unifies Czech foreign policy.
(Ondřej Plevák | EURACTIV.cz)
Source: euractiv.com
