The Czech Republic’s second-in-command will press ahead with a visit to Taiwan, hoping to show that they are an “independent and sovereign country that won’t be commanded by anyone,” the Senate speaker said in an interview with local media.

Milos Vystrcil, speaker of the upper house of Czech parliament, will embark on a one-week visit to Taiwan with a trade mission from Aug. 30 to Sept. 5.

Vystrcil’s decision is expected to infuriate China which claims sovereignty over the self-ruled island and has been determined to isolate Taiwan diplomatically.

In a one-on-one interview with Czech weekly magazine Respekt earlier this month, Vystrcil said that President Milos Zeman and Prime Minister Andrej Babis had begged him not to publicly mention Taiwan, as they were worried it would affect the shipment of medical supplies the government had ordered from China.

The incident had made him realize that the Czech Republic was not on equal footing with China as a trading partner and that he hoped to take this visit to Taiwan as an opportunity to “put an end to a submissive and unequal relationship.”

Vystrcil said he hoped this visit would show that Czech Republic was an independent and sovereign country that would not be commanded by anyone.

Olga Lomova, head of the Institute of East Asian Studies at Charles University, said Vystrcil’s visit to China would send an important message to the international community — that an independent and sovereign country has the right to make its own decisions, free from any threats and interference from other countries.

The Czech Senate speaker is only second to the president in the Czech political hierarchy. Vystrcil’s predecessor Jaroslav Kubera, 72, died unexpectedly in January before he could make the trip originally scheduled for February.

Reuters reported in February that the Chinese embassy in Prague on Jan. 10 sent a letter to the Czech president’s office suggesting that Czech companies operating in mainland China, such as Volkswagen subsidiary Skoda Auto or lender Home Credit Group would suffer if Kubera went ahead with the trip.

Kubera’s family later told local media that Kubera before his death had become stressed after receiving repeated threats from the Czech presidency and the Chinese embassy to pressure him into cancelling the trip.

Vystrcil would be the central European country’s most senior official ever to visit Taiwan if the trip goes as planned.

---------------------------------
Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app
To know more: https://bit.ly/2yMMfQE
Apple Daily mobile app latest version DOWNLOAD NOW