Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil believes European countries need to unite in dealing with China, saying that his delegation's visit to Taiwan last year brought increased pressure from Beijing in apparent retaliation for its move to improve ties with the island.
In a recent online interview with Kyodo News, Vystrcil, who led the roughly 90-member delegation to Taipei last year, said "China is doing everything it possibly can to keep Taiwan isolated."
The pressure his country faced in response to the trip highlighted the "great risk" of being dependent on China, the world's second-largest economy, he said, without elaborating on what actions Beijing has taken.
"It clearly has shown that if there is a dependency on China in terms of deliveries of some raw materials, infrastructure or strategic products, there is a great risk attached to that because China will not hesitate to make use of this dependency any time in the future to gain whatever it wants," he said.
"On the other hand, I do realize that it is not possible to not deal with China. There is a need to trade on standard terms with China," he added.
The delegation's visit in a show of support for the "democracy and freedom" of Taiwan drew a sharp response from Beijing, which threatened that Vystrcil will "pay a heavy price" for his "short-sighted behavior and political opportunism." During the trip, he met with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and spoke at Taiwan's legislature.
"We know this firsthand from our own experience how important it is to provide support to countries which live in a situation where they are not that free, that are being oppressed," Vystrcil said, referring to his experience of Czechoslovakia's occupation in 1968 by Soviet, Polish, Bulgarian and Hungarian troops united under the Warsaw Pact.
The Czech Republic, along with Lithuania and Slovakia, has moved to strengthen ties with Taiwan and Vystrcil believes Europe as a whole should coordinate to do the same.
"Instead of these individual activities, I would more like to see the leaders of countries in Europe seriously deal with foreign affairs policy with respect to countries such as China and Russia," he said.
China and Taiwan have been separately governed since they split in 1949 as a result of a civil war. Their relationship has deteriorated under independence-leaning Tsai, who has served as Taiwan's president since 2016.
