Czech military intelligence said that Chinese agents had harassed and endangered a visiting Taiwanese politician.
Hsiao Bi-khim, then Taiwan’s Vice President elect, had visited the Czech Republic in March 2024. While Taiwan and the Czech Republic have no official relations, they have cultivated warm mutual unofficial ties.
During the visit, Hsiao was followed by a Chinese diplomat has followed her and behaved recklessly in traffic. There were also reports that Chinese operatives had planned a “demonstrative car crash”.
These actions violated diplomatic protocols.
A spokesman for Czech intelligence said to Reuters: “[Chinese actions] consisted of physically following the vice-president, gathering information on her schedule and attempts to document her meetings with important representatives of the Czech political and public scene.”
“We even recorded an attempt by the Chinese civil secret service to create conditions to perform a demonstrative kinetic action against a protected person, which however did not go beyond the phase of preparation,” he added.
The Czech foreign ministry indicated that it had summoned the Chinese ambassador at the time, but provided no further details.
The Chinese foreign ministry denied wrongdoing, and said that the Czech Republic had done China hurt by allowing Hsiao to visit its territory.
The Mainland Affairs Council – Taiwan’s body tasked with matters concerning the People’s Republic of China – commented that these actions threatened Hsiao’s safety.
“The Mainland Affairs Council today protested and strongly condemned the Chinese communist’s bad behaviour and demanded that the Chinese side should immediately explain and publicly apologise,” it added.