Wang warns over Czech visit to Taiwan

Senate speaker will pay 'heavy price' for leading 89-strong delegation to island

China will make Czech Senate Speaker Milos Vystrcil and the anti-China forces behind him "pay a heavy price for their shortsighted behavior and political opportunism", State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday.

Vystrcil is leading a delegation of 89 leaders from the Central European country's political, business, artistic and academic circles on a trip to Taiwan, according to the Associated Press.

During his trip to Germany, Wang said the Chinese government and people will never sit back and watch while "overt provocation" takes place.

"To challenge the one-China principle over the Taiwan question is to antagonize the 1.4 billion Chinese people, and is treachery," Wang said.

Also on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian expressed strong condemnation and grave concerns over "the Czech anti-China forces purposeful infringement of China's sovereignty and brutal interference in China's domestic affairs".

At a regular news conference, Zhao urged the Czech side to take immediate action to eliminate the ill effects caused by Vystrcil's Taiwan visit and avoid undermining China-Czech Republic ties.

Zhao also warned the authorities in Taiwan and the anti-China forces behind Vystrcil that what they did cannot change the fact that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China, and that any political manipulation and attempt to conduct "Taiwan independence" separatist activities will fail.

A spokesperson for China's embassy in Prague said on Saturday that Vystrcil insisted on visiting Taiwan "out of his own political calculation".

Vystrcil has seriously interfered in China's domestic affairs and violated China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as seriously breached the norms guiding international relations and the political commitments between China and the Czech Republic, the spokesperson said.

Border issue

In another development, Zhao said on Monday that China's border troops have always strictly abided by the Line of Actual Control, and have never crossed the line, after India accused the Chinese military of carrying out "provocative" movements.

The Chinese military urged India to immediately withdraw its border forces that had trespassed into Chinese territory on Monday at the southern bank of Pangong Tso Lake in China's Tibet autonomous region.

Senior Colonel Zhang Shuili, spokesman of the People's Liberation Army Western Theater Command, said in a statement on Monday night that the Indian military had violated the previous consensus reached by the two militaries by trespassing into Chinese territory again and stirring tension in the region with blatant provocation.

"The action by India has severely violated China's territorial sovereignty and severely damaged peace and stability at the China-India border," he said. "China strongly opposes this faithless act of repudiating past promises."