China’s foreign minister says Czech senate president will ‘pay heavy price’ for visiting Taiwan
- Milos Vystrcil defies Wang Yi’s warnings he will ‘make an enemy of the Chinese people’
- Czech visitor says two sides share democratic values and it is important to stand for freedom worldwide
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China says Czech senate president will ‘pay heavy price’ for visiting Taiwan
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi threatened that a senior Czech politician would pay a “heavy price” after defying Beijing to visit Taiwan.
While on a trip to Germany, Wang told reporters early on Monday that the Chinese government would not sit idly back after the “public provocation” by Milos Vystrcil, the president of the senate, and slammed “anti-China forces backing him”.
“To challenge the one-China principle on Taiwan is to make an enemy of 1.4 billion Chinese people, and is an international breach of trust,” Wang said. “We must make him pay a heavy price for his short-sighted actions and political opportunism.”
Vystrcil is the most senior Czech politician to visit Taiwan since former president Vaclav Havel 16 years ago.
His trip comes at a time when Taiwan has sought to shore up international support, and as concerns have grown in Europe over how to address Beijing’s increasingly assertive foreign policy.