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

The Taiwanese and Chinese foreign ministers are both visiting Europe at the same time this week, a rare alignment of schedules in the same location given Beijing’s efforts to stop Taipei from having any form of foreign diplomatic engagements.

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.

Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung arrived in Prague on Thursday, attending an event at the Czech National Museum which is hosting an exhibition of imperial Chinese artefacts from Taiwan’s National Palace Museum.

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”.

It did not say which other countries he might visit.

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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