Taiwan’s speaker warns of Chinese ambitions in Prague, China protests

• Taiwan’s parliament speaker warned against China’s power ambitions in a speech to the Czech parliament.
• The Czech Republic’s center-right government has identified Taiwan as one of the Asian democracies it wants to strengthen ties with.
• Beijing strongly condemned You Si-kun’s visit, claiming that it violated China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

PRAGUE, 20 JULY – You Si-kun, Taiwan’s parliament speaker, warned against China’s power ambitions in a speech to the Czech parliament on Thursday, drawing a rebuke from Beijing.

You stated that Taiwan was gaining international clout, but that authoritarianism was also on the rise.

“I would like to speak to all our friends around the world with whom we are connected by democracy to study carefully and understand the nature of the Chinese communist regime and how to nip it in the bud,” You said in an interpreted speech to the Senate.
“If we do not do so, it may cause irreparable harm to humanity in the near future,” the speaker, a member of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, added.

The Czech Republic’s center-right government, a member of the European Union (EU) and NATO military alliance, has identified Taiwan as one of the Asian democracies with which it wants to strengthen ties.

The Chinese embassy in Prague strongly condemned You’s visit, claiming that it violated China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and harmed Czech-Chinese relations.

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“The Chinese side appeals to the Czech side to take China’s firm position seriously, to maintain its political commitment to one China, and to stop sending mixed signals to forces seeking ‘Taiwan independence,'” it said.

China suspended imports from another EU member, Lithuania, in early 2022, after Taiwan established a de facto embassy in Vilnius.

Taiwan is a thriving democracy, but China considers the island to be its own territory and has never refrained from using force to seize control of it.
Despite disagreements with some EU member states, China agreed on Tuesday to coordinate economic policies with the EU, liberalise trade and investment, and open up its financial sector even further. However, it remained silent on an investment deal that had been stalled due to disagreements over human rights, geopolitics, and the Ukraine war.

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