Czech President seeks toning down of tensions with China over Senate's trip to Taiwan

With China condemning Czech Senate’s trip to Taiwan, Czech President Milos Zeman sought to dismiss the spiralling tensions on September 6 and called the visit of its speaker as a “boyish provocation”. Shortly after Czech Senate speaker Milos Vystrcil, who visited the island without the backing of the government, made the comment of being a “Taiwanese” in a speech at Taiwan parliament, China expressed its anger. 

According to international media reports, the Czech government has said that its speaker would “pay a heavy price” for visiting the democratic island that China views as its own breakaway province. The controversial trip of Vystrcil also prompted Prague to summon China’s ambassador. Meanwhile, Zeman has reportedly sought closer political and trade relations with the Asian superpower since he took the office in 2013. However, his efforts seemed to have failed with unsuccessful investment plans and division among politicians. 

Recently, in a televised interview, Czech President said that he would stop inviting the Senate speaker to meetings of state’s top foreign policy officials and noted that his trip could damage for the firms but added that China’s remarks were reportedly exaggerated. “I consider it boyish provocation,” Zeman said of the trip. Like most countries across the globe, the Czech Republic does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan even though the island remains a large investor in the European country. 

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China-Taiwan tensions

Meanwhile, the tensions between both nations have been soaring with most recently Taiwan denouncing Beijing's “vulgar threats” to Czech Senate Speaker who visited Taiwan ignoring Asian superpowers' threats. China has already made it evident that for its government, Taiwan is a breakaway province and has even indicated the willingness to use force to recapture it.

However, Taiwan has reiterated that it is an independent nation and has even removed the Republic of China from its official passport. The so-called breakaway province of China has grown stronger over the years with constant backing from the United States. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump’s administration has not left a single opportunity to get back at China since the COVID-19 pandemic originated in December 2019 from a province in the Asian superpower. 

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(With agency inputs)