Taiwan vs China in Europe: Foreign ministers visiting continent at the same time

Taiwan and China’s foreign ministers are both visiting Europe this week, a rare overlap given Beijing’s longstanding efforts to block Taipei from having any formal diplomatic engagements.

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung arrived in Prague on Thursday to attend the opening of an exhibition at the Czech National Museum featuring imperial Chinese artefacts from Taiwan’s National Palace Museum.

He was joined by Czech Senate speaker Milos Vystrcil, whose 2020 visit to Taiwan drew sharp criticism from Beijing. The Czech foreign ministry declined to comment on Lin’s visit.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, saying it is a Chinese province with no right to state-to-state ties, a view the government in Taipei strongly rejects and has pushed back against.

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The Taiwanese museum said in a statement that also 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 comment.

The Czech Republic, which like most countries only formally recognises Beijing and not Taipei, has grown increasingly close to Taiwan, seeing parallels between the threat Europe faces from Russia and the threat the island faces from China.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Lin’s trip to Europe was to promote the Taiwan Culture in Europe Year - a series of Taiwanese cultural events in the continent - “as a bridge connecting European and Taiwanese values, while fostering exchanges and interactions with European partners”.

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It did not say which other countries he might visit.

Separately, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi starts a three-nation visit to Europe on Friday. He will be going to Austria, Slovenia and Poland.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said the government strongly opposes any official exchanges with Taiwan, referring to Taiwan minister Lin as “merely a local foreign affairs official in China”.

China and Taiwan earlier this week engaged in a bitter war of words over the Prague exhibition, where one of the National Palace Museum’s crown jewels, the Qing dynasty Jadeite Cabbage, is on display.

Asked about the show, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Taiwan was trying to exploit Chinese treasures for “cultural independence” and that Taipei’s aim was “de-Sinification”.

On Thursday, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council responded that China was the one responsible for not protecting antiques.

“It wasn’t us who engaged in the Cultural Revolution, it was the Chinese communists,” spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh said, referring to the 1966-1976 period when Mao Zedong declared class war and the sweeping away of old China.

With inputs from agencies