Radio Prague Internatinal
Date: 06/27/2020
By: Ian Willoughby
China’s ambassador to the Czech Republic says he does not see why the countries would insist on destroying mutual relations that are in the interest of both nations. Zhang Jianmin made the comment in an interview for the Czech News Agency centred on a planned trip to Taiwan by Czech Senate speaker Miloš Vystrčil. Mr. Zhang said some people were still stuck in a Cold War mentality and overlooked facts and believed everything stemmed from ideology or political objectives.
Mr. Vystrčil has said he will visit Taiwan in late August not just for business reasons but also because in his view senior Czech politicians have not responded sufficiently to Chinese pressure to abandon the planned trip.
Earlier this year China put pressure on the previous upper house speaker, Jaroslav Kubera, to drop his intention to visit Taiwan. Mr. Kubera died of a heart attack soon afterwards.
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