Head of Czech Senate Goes to Taiwan, Declares Himself Taiwanese


You’d think that both world wars starting over local, relatively minor conflicts that didn’t really have anything to do with most of the countries involved would teach people that minding their own business is a good thing.

It didn’t.

Japan Times:

The head of the Czech Senate declared himself to be Taiwanese in a speech at Taiwan’s parliament on Tuesday, channelling late U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s defiance of Communism in Berlin in 1963, in remarks likely to further rile Beijing.

China, which claims democratic Taiwan as its own territory, has threatened to make Czech Senate speaker Milos Vystrcil pay a “heavy price” for visiting the island. The Czech Republic, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

Addressing Taiwan’s parliament, Vystrcil, who is leading a delegation of about 90 politicians and business executives, said Kennedy’s declaration he was a Berliner was an important message for freedom and against Communism.

“Please let me also express in person my support to Taiwan and the ultimate value of freedom and conclude today’s speech … with perhaps a more humble, but equally strong statement: ‘I am a Taiwanese,’” Vystrcil said, receiving a standing ovation.

Vystrcil has said his Taiwan visit underscores the “values-based” foreign policy put in place by late President Vaclav Havel, an anti-communist dissident and personal friend of the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama.

While the Czech government has not supported his visit, it has been upset by China’s strong condemnation and has summoned the Chinese ambassador. Beijing on Monday also summoned the Czech ambassador for a telling-off.

Czech President Milos Zeman has sought closer business and political ties with China since taking office in 2013, but his efforts have been hit by failed investment plans and Czech wavering about allowing China’s Huawei Technologies to play a role in developing next-generation telecoms networks.

Saying that you’re against China because you’re an anti-communist or because “freedom” is completely moronic.

China hasn’t done any serious communism in decades. The only people on this planet who genuinely believe in literal communism are a handful of Westerners with more degrees than brain cells, the vast majority of whom have never worked a day in their lives.

As for freedom, the Chinese have a lot more of that than most countries in Europe.

In China, saying something against your rulers will rarely result in more than a warning, a ban from using social media, or at most a fine, while in most of the previously-Western world, you lose your job, go straight to prison, and your life is more or less permanently destroyed.


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