The Taiwanese and Chinese foreign ministers are each visiting Europe at the same time this week, a uncommon alignment of schedules in the same location.
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The Taiwanese and Chinese foreign ministers are each visiting Europe at the same time this week, a uncommon alignment of schedules in the same location given Beijing’s efforts to cease Taipei from having any type of foreign diplomatic engagements.
China views democratically ruled Taiwan as its personal territory, saying it’s a Chinese province with no proper to state-to-state ties, a view the authorities in Taipei strongly rejects and has pushed again towards.
Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung arrived in Prague on Thursday, attending an occasion at the Czech National Museum which is internet hosting an exhibition of imperial Chinese artefacts from Taiwan’s National Palace Museum.
The Taiwanese museum mentioned in an announcement that additionally attending the opening of the exhibition with Lin was Czech Senate speaker Milos Vystrcil, who visited Taiwan in 2020, stoking Beijing’s anger.
The Czech foreign ministry declined to remark.
The Czech Republic, which like most international locations solely formally acknowledges Beijing and never Taipei, has grown more and more near Taiwan, seeing parallels between the risk Europe faces from Russia and the risk the island faces from China.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry mentioned Lin’s journey to Europe was to advertise the Taiwan Culture in Europe Year – a sequence of Taiwanese cultural occasions in the continent – “as a bridge connecting European and Taiwanese values, while fostering exchanges and interactions with European partners”.
It didn’t say which different international locations he would possibly go to.
China’s foreign ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Separately, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi begins a three-nation go to to Europe on Friday. He might be going to Austria, Slovenia and Poland.