Vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) is in the Czech Republic and spoke at a seminar organized by Sinopsis, a Prague-based think tank, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry’s confirmation of the visit came after Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil wrote that he had met with Hsiao on the sidelines of the Sinopsis event in a social media post accompanied by a photograph with her.
Hsiao is in the Czech Republic to meet with friends before she officially assumes office on May 20, ministry spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) said.
Photo: Screen grab from Milos Vystrcil’s X account
Although Taiwan has no formal diplomatic ties with any European state except the Vatican, central and eastern European countries have been particularly keen to show support for Taiwan, especially following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In Beijing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian (林劍) said that Prague should “severely restrain certain [Czech] politicians” and “take effective measures to remove the negative influence of this incident.”
China last week expressed anger about Hsiao’s trip to the US — on what both Taipei and Washington called a private visit.
Answering a request for comment from Reuters, a US Department of State official said that Hsiao, a former representative to the US, had visited the country “in her personal capacity to tend to personal matters.”
“The United States has a longstanding precedent of transits by Taiwan officials and visits by candidates and vice president-elect before they assume office,” the spokesperson said.
Hsiao, 52, served as Taiwan’s top representative to Washington from July 2020, before she resigned in late November last year to be Vice President William Lai’s (賴清德) running mate for the Jan. 13 presidential election.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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