Vietnam Reviews - The Strategic Studies
Czech Senate president meets Taiwan leader; Beijing protests
HUIZHONG WU
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The Czech Senate president met with Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen and other top government officials Thursday during a rare trip by a foreign dignitary to the self-ruled democratic island that rival China called an “open provocation.”
Tsai presented a medal for Jaroslav Kubera, the late predecessor of Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil.
Kubera died in January before making the trip, and Vystrcil said China’s pressure, including a warning from the Chinese Embassy against congratulating Tsai on her reelection, contributed to his decision to travel to the island.
Tsai called Kubera a “great friend" and gave a nod to Vystrcil's speech Tuesday, saying his words “I'm a Taiwanese” had touched many hearts.
“Our actions are telling friends in Europe and all over the world, whether Taiwanese or Czechs, we will not succumb to oppression, will bravely speak up, actively participate in international affairs, and contribute our capabilities,” she said.
Beijing is furious about the Czech delegation’s visit, with the foreign ministry summoning the Czech Republic’s ambassador to lodge stern representations and saying the trip amounted to “flagrant support of Taiwan independence.” China claims Taiwan as its own territory and strongly objects to any official contact between other countries and the self-governing island.
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday that Vystrcil's visit is an “open provocation.”
“China must tell the Czech Senate leader: You've crossed the line!” Wang said.
Vystrcil and Taiwan's foreign minister also refuted China's warnings.
“I do not feel I have crossed any red line whatsoever,” Vystrcil said in response to reporters' questions on Thursday. “We did not do anything that would be an infringement of the One China policy.”
He added, “every country has the right to interpret the One China principle in their own way."
“We are here to stay and Taiwan is not going anywhere," Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said. ”Taiwan is trying to maintain the status quo and the status quo is that Taiwan does not belong to China. Taiwan is governed by its own people."
Vystrcil and Wu announced further cooperation in business, scientific research and democratic exchange.
Vystrcil announced the formation of a working group from the Czech side dedicated to cooperation on the economy and cybersecurity.
Tensions between the Czech Republic and China have simmered since a dispute between their capitals last year. They ended a sister-cities agreement because Beijing had wanted Prague to agree to the “One China” principle, which says Taiwan is part of China.
In his address Tuesday, Vystrcil directly referenced former President John F. Kennedy’s famed 1963 anti-communist speech in then-divided Berlin, and emphasized democratic freedoms embraced since the Czech Republic threw off communist rule at the end of the Cold War and Taiwan emerged from martial law at the end of the 1980s.
“In 1963, the American president JFK, in his famous speech ‘I’m a Berliner,’ clearly opposed communism and political oppression and supported the people of West Berlin,” Vystrcil said. “He said ‘Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free.’”
“Please let me use the same manner to express my support to the people of Taiwan: ‘I’m a Taiwanese,’” he said, speaking the last phrase in Mandarin Chinese.
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Japan, U.S. defence chiefs oppose bid to alter status of Asian waters
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Defence Minister Taro Kono said on Saturday he had agreed with his U.S. counterpart Mark Esper that both countries opposed any unilateral attempt to change the status quo in the key waterways of the South China Sea and the East China Sea.
Kono shared his view with the U.S. defense secretary at a time when the United States and China are at loggerheads over issues ranging from technology and human rights to Chinese military activities in the disputed South China Sea.
A thorny issue in China's ties with Japan is Beijing's claim to a group of tiny East China Sea islets controlled by Tokyo.
"We agreed that the international community will respond firmly to any unilateral change to the status quo in the South China Sea as well as the East China Sea," Kono said.
He was speaking online from Guam to reporters in the Japanese capital following his meeting with Esper.
Kono said Esper had confirmed that the U.S.-Japan security treaty covered the East China Sea islets, known as the Senkaku islands in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China.
Turning to Japan's domestic politics, Kono said he would think hard about running in a ruling party election to choose a successor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who abruptly announced his resignation for health reasons on Friday.
The United States has long opposed China's expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea and has sent warships regularly through the strategic waterway.
China claims 90% of the potentially energy-rich waters but Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also lay claim to parts of it.
About $3 trillion worth of trade passes through the waterway each year. China has built bases atop atolls in the region but says its intentions are peaceful.
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by William Mallard and Clarence Fernandez)
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