Taiwanese President Tsai holds talks with Czech Senate leader to the ire of Beijing

Milos Vystrcil has been on an official visit to the self-ruled island since Sunday

Beijing will ‘take necessary actions to safeguard its legitimate interests’, says foreign ministry spokeswoman

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Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen held talks with visiting Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil at her office in Taipei on Thursday. Photo: CNA

Published: 1:29pm, 3 Sep 2020Updated: 3:20pm, 3 Sep 2020

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen held talks with visiting Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil at her office in Taipei on Thursday, in a meeting likely to draw fresh ire from Beijing, which has objected to the trip.

Vystrcil has been on an official visit to the self-ruled island since Sunday. Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, condemned him after he delivered a speech at Taiwan’s legislature on Tuesday.

The Tsai-Vystrcil talks are likely to draw an intensified mainland Chinese reaction.

Tsai and Vystrcil are expected to discuss strengthening Taiwan-Czech cooperation in the fields of the economy, trade, responses to the coronavirus pandemic, and science and culture. The two countries have no formal ties.

After Vystrcil’s speech on Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said there was only one China and that he “has openly broken international consensus and breached the one-China principle, which the Czech government has promised to uphold”.

She added that Beijing would “take necessary actions to safeguard its legitimate interests”.

Vystrcil, who is leading an 89-member delegation for a six-day visit until Friday, is the highest-level Czech politician to visit Taiwan to date. His visit is at the invitation of Legislative Speaker You Si-kun.