Grateful Taiwan accepts vaccines, praises Czech Republic for democracy
- Island’s president talks of ‘path of freedom’ partners
- European country is latest to donate doses to Taipei, following Lithuania and Slovakia
10:22
Why has the relationship between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan taken a turn for the worse?
Beijing sees self-ruled Taiwan as a renegade province that should be brought back under its control. Last year Beijing condemned the head of the Czech Senate, Milos Vystrcil, for making an official trip to the island. Czech President Milos Zeman subsequently tried to defuse the row, calling the speaker’s trip a “boyish provocation”.
Since a rare spike in domestic cases began in Taiwan in May, its government has received almost 6 million vaccine doses gifted by Japan and the United States, enabling it to speed up an inoculation programme that it said had been hampered initially by Beijing. Beijing denies playing any negative role.
01:34
US sends 2.5 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan
The Czech Republic’s decision to donate vaccines to Taiwan follows similar actions by Lithuania and Slovakia.
Since the pandemic began, Taiwan has donated millions of face masks around the world, including to the Czech Republic.
Like most governments, the Czech Republic has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan although Taiwan is a large investor in the country.
