The Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Czech Republic, Adamova, will lead a delegation to visit Taiwan and South Korea from March 21 to March 30. The Czech-Taiwan Chamber of Commerce issued a message, and enterprises are welcome to sign up for the delegation.

(taken from the website of Jietai Chamber of Commerce)

[Reporter Lu Yixuan/Taipei Report] The relationship between the Czech Republic and Taiwan is getting closer. Marcin Jerzewski, director of the European Value Security Policy Center (EVC) Taiwan Office, pointed out in an interview that after the new president takes office, the attitude of the Czech executive branch will tend to be the same. , will provide more space for the institutionalization of exchanges between Jietai and Taiwan.

He expects three main directions. First, economic relations will be a priority. The Czech Republic will continue to attract investment from Taiwan, including related to the semiconductor industry, and may also establish a new bilateral mechanism for talents; second, the Czech Republic is expected to negotiate judicial cooperation and more. Third, we can expect more high-level exchanges between the two sides, including presidential visits, which will go beyond the current active congressional diplomacy.

In recent years, the Czech Republic has become one of the major European countries interacting with Taiwan. From the initiative of the President of the Senate to visit Taiwan and the inclusion of Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific strategy, the Czech Republic has not feared China's opposition and insisted on the independence of sovereign state decision-making.

After being elected at the end of February, Czech President-elect Pavel had a phone call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, and he also personally stated his position, which attracted widespread attention.

Czech House Speaker Markéta Pekarová Adamová will lead a delegation to visit Taiwan next month.

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Markéta Záhumenská, a researcher at the Czech think tank Sinopsis, interviewed and analyzed that the phone calls between the president of Taiwan and the president-elect of non-friendly countries are currently only the United States and the Czech Republic. Therefore, the Czech Republic can become a place for other European countries to strengthen friendly relations with Taiwan. role model.

And Pavel can be expected to follow the policy tradition of "respect for democracy, freedom and human rights" of the former Czech President Havel and continue to strengthen the partnership with Taiwan.

In March, the Speaker of the House of Representatives will lead a delegation to visit Taiwan, and the two sides will have the opportunity to reach a more specific agreement.

Ye Haoqin specifically pointed out that Pavel's stance on China and Taiwan obviously comes from his NATO experience.

As a retired general, Pavel believes that the Ukraine war was the bloodiest war in Europe after World War II, and China's failure to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine and its subsequent support had a huge impact on this war.

Compared with the EU, NATO's stance on China is much tougher, which is quite obvious in the comparison of strategic documents.

As for Taiwan, which has allocated resources to help Ukraine, Ye Haoqin suggested that Taiwan and the Czech Republic can cooperate more in supporting Ukraine, and regard the Czech Republic as a major regional partner in Central and Eastern Europe, thereby promoting exchanges with Kyiv.

As for whether China will retaliate against the Czech Republic for this series of interactions?

Both Ye Haoqin and Ma Kaitang believe that China has limited room to coerce the Czech Republic politically or economically.

One is that the relationship between the two sides has been frozen for a period of time. In 2020, when Czech Senate President Vedzi visited Taiwan, China had already threatened the Czech Republic, but the consequences were not serious.

The other is the case of Lithuania, which shows that China’s tough approach in violation of international trade norms only resulted in an escalation of trade disputes between Europe and China. The EU unitedly supported Lithuania and filed a lawsuit against China at the WTO.

Ye Haoqin added that when the Czech delegation made another high-profile visit to Taiwan next month, the Communist Army may increase the number of military aircraft that violate Taiwan's air defense identification zone or conduct more exercises. This is a potential negative impact on Taiwan. Within the scope of the "new normal" since summer.

Ma Kaitang added that China is trying to improve its reputation in Europe, which is why China is hesitant.

In terms of its impact on Europe as a whole, Ye Haoqin pointed out that Central and Eastern European countries such as Lithuania and the Czech Republic are pioneers in interacting with Taiwan. Political, economic, social and cultural fields can establish substantive exchanges with Taiwan.

Pavel is not a revolutionary, but a principled visionary.

The Czech Republic and Lithuania have already acted and have the potential to influence the overall foreign policy direction of the EU.

Ye Haoqin also believes that the Czech Republic may follow the Baltic countries and withdraw from the cooperation mechanism between China and Central and Eastern Europe, which currently only has "14+1" left; this will send a strong signal to Beijing that Europe does not welcome its "divide and rule" efforts. It will promote the EU to interact with China in a more cohesive "27+1" model.