Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Czech Senate chair Milos Vystrcil should pay a high price for visiting Taiwan and for his “shortsighted behaviour”, Czech News Agency reported on August 31.
Vystrcil headed to Taiwan, along with a nearly 100-member delegation of businesspeople, academics and seven fellow senators. The delegation seeks to strengthen bilateral relations and trade, despite fierce protests from China and criticism from Czech President Milos Zeman.
Wang’s spokesperson Zhao Lijian added that Beijing would not "sit idly by and let go of the public provocation of the Czech Senate speaker and the anti-China forces behind him", as quoted by Euronews.
Vystrcil responded by saying the statement is an interference in Czech domestic affairs.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis also considers the Chinese comment inappropriate and said he spoke about this matter with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomas Petricek, who plans to summon the Chinese ambassador to Prague this week to explain Wang’s statement, stressing that the language used went beyond the conventions of diplomacy.
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