image source,Petr Pavel Facebook
A military background, the 61-year-old retired general Pavel was the chairman of the NATO Military Commission and the Czech Chief of Staff.
Czech President-elect Petr Pavel held a teleconference with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on the evening of January 30, and the two talked for 15 minutes.
Pavel, who was born in the military, just won the presidential election runoff on January 28 local time. He will take office in early March. The Czech Republic is currently a member of NATO and the European Union.
Lin Yu-chan, spokesperson of the Taiwan Presidential Office, revealed to the media following the phone call that Pavel called Taiwan a reliable partner who supports Taiwan in maintaining a vibrant democratic system and “is free from authoritarian coercion”; Tsai Ing-wen, in addition to congratulating Pavel won the election, and said that Taiwan hopes to continue to promote bilateral partnerships under the leadership of the latter in the future. Tsai Ing-wen also mentioned on her social media account that both of them graduated from the University of London, hoping to draw closer the relationship between Taipei and Prague.
image source,Social media
The Czech Republic is an important window for China to promote the “Belt and Road” strategy in Europe. However, in the past few years, the confrontation between pro-China and China-skeptical factions in the Czech political arena has become more and more obvious. The interactions reflect differences in China policy across the country’s different parties.
Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, an assistant professor at Tung Hwa University in Taiwan who is engaged in research on European-Taiwan relations, told BBC Chinese, “The phone call between the president-elect of the Czech Republic and President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan is unprecedented in Europe. However, bilateral exchanges between Taipei and Prague have to take place in recent years. This event is viewed once morest the backdrop of a strengthening of the Czech Republic and the increasingly negative perception of Beijing in the Czech Republic.”
She said the Czech Republic and Taiwan realized the importance of cooperating with each other as they confronted common challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic and dealing with authoritarian threats. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Prague and Taipei have grown closer, further cementing Taipei’s ties to Central and Eastern Europe, including Taipei’s assistance to Ukrainian refugees from Central and Eastern Europe.
Beijing’s forewarning
Archyde.com reported on January 30 that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had contacted the Czech government before the call between Pavel and Tsai Ing-wen in an attempt to cancel the call plan, but failed. According to Archyde.com, the Chinese Foreign Ministry replied that Pavel had previously stated during the campaign that the one-China principle should be respected. “The Chinese side… is currently seeking verification with the Czech side, and we hope that the Czech side will strictly uphold the one-China principle.”
Feng Rusha, who is from Eastern Europe and has served as a political adviser to the European Parliament, told the BBC that Prague and Taipei, like other EU member states, are learning how to deal with new geopolitical realities, “but both have ways to deal with Chinese and Russian authoritarianism and various threats. sense of urgency.”
She explained that the new Czech government, which has been in power since 2021, has expressed its readiness to “reconsider” cooperation with China, and the new president has also said that China is “a threat.” Thus, the phone call between the Czech president-elect and the Taiwanese president reflects a new direction for foreign policy: closer to Taiwan and a stronger Europe, and starting to distance itself from China.
What did the two say?
After the phone call with Tsai Ing-wen, Pavel tweeted that the two sides agreed to strengthen the relationship between the two countries, and he looked forward to meeting President Tsai in person in the future. “I was on the phone today with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. I thanked her for her congratulations and assured her that Taiwan and the Czech Republic share the values of freedom, democracy and human rights. Both sides agreed to strengthen their partnership.”
Taiwan Presidential Office Spokesperson Lin Yu-chan reported on the 30th that Tsai Ing-wen, on behalf of the people and the government of Taiwan, firstly congratulated General Pavel on his election with high votes, and affirmed that the election of President Pavel continues the founding spirit of the former Czech President Havel in respecting democracy, freedom and human rights. . She also said that Taiwan is willing to deepen cooperation and exchanges with the Czech Republic in semiconductor design, cutting-edge technology talent cultivation, and global supply chain restructuring.
Czech Republic and Cross-Strait Relations
The 61-year-old retired general Pavel, who was born in the military, was the chairman of the NATO Military Commission and the chief of staff of the Czech Republic. His position is pro-EU and NATO.
image source,President Office, Taiwan
Pavel talked to Tsai Ing-wen for 15 minutes. Taiwan Foreign Minister Wu Zhaoxie also participated in the conversation.
Pavel won the presidential election once morest his pro-Russian opponent Andrej Babiš by 58%.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, anti-Russian voices in the Czech Republic became louder, and society was very sensitive to Prague’s interaction with Moscow and Beijing. Since Tsai Ing-wen was one of the first foreign leaders contacted by Pavel following his election, Archyde.com commented that this event was very rare, and it also aroused great concern from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
After the call, the speaker of the Czech Chamber of Deputies, Markéta Adamová, also tweeted:post saying: “I will visit Taiwan in March. It is important to support partners who respect democracy and human rights.”
The Czech Republic was once a key country for Beijing’s deployment of the Belt and Road Initiative in Europe, but its relationship with Beijing has changed dramatically in recent years, and the country’s opposition party’s attitude toward China has begun to change qualitatively in recent years.
In 2019, the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra’s planned tour in China was canceled by the Chinese authorities, saying that the reason was that the mayor of Prague, Zdenek Hrib, who had studied in Taiwan, criticized the “one China” policy and the relationship with Cai following he took office. “Pro-Taiwan” actions such as meeting in English angered China.
At that time, Jipu He told BBC Chinese that culture and art should not be linked with politics, and he was disappointed by the incident.
In August 2020, Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil led a business delegation to visit Taiwan, causing even more uproar. Prior to this, China has been trying to exert pressure to prevent Wittzi from visiting Taiwan. According to the Czech constitution, the president of the Czech Senate is second only to the president.
The then pro-Beijing Czech President Miloš Zeman criticized Wittzi’s visit to Taiwan as a “naive and provocative act”.
In addition, Witzi took office because Jaroslav Kubera, the former speaker of the Czech Senate, was scheduled to visit Taiwan in February, but died of a heart attack before his departure. At that time, the Czech media broke the news that a few days before Kojalo’s heart attack, the Chinese embassy in Prague had sent a letter warning him that if he insisted on visiting Taiwan, Czech companies in China would pay a “heavy price.” This letter originally belonged to The exposure of the confidential threatening letter caused turmoil in the Czech Republic. Ke Jialuo’s relatives accused China of threatening Ke Jialuo’s heart attack.
image source,Senate, Czech Republic
Czech Senate President Miloš Vystrčil will visit Taiwan for a week in August 2020.
The Czech Republic, with a population of regarding 10.9 million, is considered an indicator country for successful democratization transition following the collapse of the communist regime in Eastern Europe since the late 1980s.
The peaceful revolution led by former President Havel was known internationally as the “Velvet Revolution” (Velvet Revolution). With the invasion of Ukraine shaking Europe, the country has become an important country for the two major powers to seek support. How Beijing will interact with the new government led by Pavel is expected to be a major focus of Eastern European politics.