China aimed to sabotage Taiwanese vice president’s Czechia visit, intelligence confirms
Diplomatic staff at the Chinese embassy in Prague led an intelligence operation, including a plan of physical confrontation, against Taiwanese Vice-President Hsiao Bi-khim during her 3-day visit to Prague in March last year. The act of interference, unprecedented on European soil, was confirmed by Czech military intelligence.
Czechia was the destination of Hsiao’s first unofficial foreign trip as vice-president, since her election victory as running mate of President Lai Ching-te. The Chinese government regularly denounces similar foreign policy steps on Taiwan’s part, with acts of political protest or diplomatic pressure.
The intelligence operation launched against Hsiao hence marks an escalation, according to Jan Pejšek, spokesperson of the Czech Military Intelligence Service:
“It was a case of physically following, to the point of endangering the Taiwanese vice-president; an attempt at gathering information about her schedule, and documenting her meetings with prominent figures of the Czech political scene.”
These activities, which flagrantly breach the obligations arising from the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, were conducted, amongst others, by individuals holding diplomatic posts at the Chinese Embassy in Prague,” he continues.
According to information obtained by Czech Radio, the embassy’s Office of the Military and Air Attaché was the primary agent of the ploy. Members of the office trailed Vice-president Hsiao since her landing at Prague’s Vaclav Havel airport on March 18, 2024.
Traffic incident swept under the rug
En route from the airport to the city centre, Hsiao was accompanied by a police convoy, followed closely by another vehicle driving “erratically” according to police reports. After ignoring red lights at an intersection, narrowly avoiding a road accident, the driver presented a Chinese diplomatic passport to law enforcement officials.
Petr Bartovský, director of the Czech Military Intelligence Service, confirms the traffic violation was merely a question of following the convoy, not an attempt at intimidation of the Taiwanese delegation. He says such possibility was, however, also on the cards:
“The plan by the Chinese civilian intelligence service to demonstratively confront Ms. Hsiao, which we identified, only reached preparation stage. All information was shared with respective authorities, who could take necessary precautions.”
Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Lipavský summoned Chinese ambassador Feng Paio in reaction to the incident. Despite receiving an explanation the foreign ministry deemed “insufficient”, no retaliatory action followed.
Senate President Miloš Vystrčil, who himself visited Taiwan twice in his current role – in 2020 and 2024 – says he would have liked to see a more emphatic reaction:
“I consider this a great impropriety. I don't think it's acceptable. We should respond to it as a sovereign and confident country, even though the Ministry of Foreign Affairs needs to weigh it up carefully. We should realize that we live in a world that is much more dangerous than before.”
Czech-Chinese relations strained over Taiwan issue
Czechia does not officially recognize Taiwan, but maintains strong unofficial relations. Vystrčil’s late predecessor in the role of Senate president, Jaroslav Kubera, also faced pressure from China over a planned visit to Taiwan in 2020. He succumbed to a cardiac arrest days before departure, and received the Taiwanese Order of Propitious Clouds in memoriam.
The Chinese intelligence operation will likely further strain an already uneasy relationship between Prague and Beijing, as sinologist Martin Hála explains:
“Bilateral relations with China, which operates as a Leninist, one-party system of governance, are quite specific. Standard diplomatic procedures play a relatively minor part, compared to countries with similar political regimes. What’s important here is the general atmosphere, which right now has reached freezing point.”
