– Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 3: Not only India, China seems to be opening too many fronts at a time, both external and internal, over different issues inviting wrath from other countries and its own people.
While the European Union showed dissatisfaction over China rebuking Czech Republic for alleged “violation” of its “one China” policy by sending an official team to Taiwan, which China claim to be one of its own province and not an independent country, a large section of people in its Mongolia province are in riotous mood for forcibly imposing Mandarin instead of Mongolian as its official language and medium of instruction in schools.
The harshest of the comments over Czech senate president Milos Vystrcil visit to Taiwan at the head of a 90-member official delegation on Thursday came from the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, currently on a five-nation Europe outreach visit. His comment that Vystrcil had “crossed a red line” because China treats Taiwan as its territory and objects to official contact between other countries and the self-governing island, invited instant opposition from various member countries of the European Union.
Even with Yi standing next to him in a press briefing in Berlin, the German foreign minister Heiko Maas, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, confronted the Chinese foreign minister for his threat to Vystrcil about whom he had said, “The Chinese government and Chinese people won’t take a laissez-faire attitude or sit idly by, and will make him (Vystrcil) pay a heavy price for his short-sighted behaviour and political opportunism.”
According to various news agency reports, telling Yi that the Europeans offered its international partners respect and expected “the exact same” from them, Mass said, “Threats don’t fit in here,” The French foreign ministry called Yi’s comments “unacceptable” which was echoed by Slovakia President Zuzana Caputova. “Threats directed at one of the EU members and its representatives contradict the very essence of our partnership and as such are unacceptable,” President Caputova said in a tweet.
Czech Senate president Milos Vystrcil on Thursday morning met Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen during his visit to the self-ruled democratic island, defying China that has called the trip “an act of international treachery” and his statements, violation of Beijing’s ‘One-China policy’.
Vystrcil, whose visit to Taipei triggered the diplomatic storm, had said the Czech Republic would not bow to objections from Beijing that considers the democratically-ruled island a breakaway province. On Thursday morning, he stuck to his schedule and met Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen and other top government officials. Tsai presented a medal for Jaroslav Kubera, the late predecessor of Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil, who died in January before he could travel to Taiwan to accept the medal.
“I do not feel I have crossed any red line whatsoever,” Vystrcil told reporters after the meeting, news agency reports said. Vystrcil said he hadn’t done anything that would be an infringement of the One China policy but underlined that “every country has the right to interpret the One China principle in their own way.”
Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said Taiwan was trying to maintain the status quo “and the status quo is that Taiwan does not belong to China. Taiwan is governed by its own people.” The two sides also spoke of plans to deepen cooperation in business, scientific research and democratic exchange.
Vystrcil had apparently angered Beijing when he in his address to Taiwanese lawmakers on Tuesday invoked a 1963 speech by the then United States President John F Kennedy during a Cold War trip to West Berlin and emphasised democratic freedoms embraced by the Czech Republic after communist rule at the end of the Cold War.
“In 1963, the American president JFK, in his famous speech ‘I’m a Berliner,’ clearly opposed communism and political oppression and supported the people of West Berlin,” Vystrcil said. “He said ‘Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. Please let me use the same manner to express my support to the people of Taiwan: I’m a Taiwanese,” he said according to the agency report.
In response, the Taiwan parliament speaker You Si-kun on Thursday showered praises at Vystrcil for his “stirring” speech to lawmakers and described him as a paragon of a cultured country. “Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s vulgar threats however were like a cold, unwelcome winter wind that cause discomfort,” the speaker said, the news agency reports claimed.
Even as China was facing flaks from the European Union besides its virtual running battle with India, in the home front a volatile situation prevailed in Mongolia where China had forcibly introduced Mandarin Chinese as the official medium of instruction in schools.
One of China’s senior Communist party leader and public security minister has instructed the police to strengthen fight against “terrorism and separatism” during a tour to parts of the northern ethnic Mongolian province which saw protests against the imposition of Mandarin in schools in the past week.
The powerful public security or police minister Zhao Khezhi, who is also a State Councilor, said during his visit to Inner Mongolia that it is “…necessary to deepen the struggle against separatism, strictly implement anti-terrorism and prevention measures, and do a solid job in maintaining stability in the ethnic and religious fields and promoting ethnic unity.”
Zhao toured Inner Mongolia and Ningxia, home to Muslim minorities, between August 29 and September 2. Zhao’s Inner Mongolia tour seemed to be in the backdrop of rare protests by ethnic Mongols against Beijing’s decision to make Mandarin – instead of Mongolian – as the language of instruction of key subjects like politics and history in local schools.
The official media report said Zhao said the police should “…undertake the duties of maintaining stability and dealing with emergencies, and fighting terrorism and violence”.
According to the New York-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre (SMHRIC), the local police have increased deployment in the capital city, Hohhot; exiled groups refer to Inner Mongolia as Southern Mongolia. “A short video taken by a Mongolian resident of Hohhot shows that hundreds of heavily armed riot police were waiting for orders in the city’s main square–Xina Hua Square,” a SMHRIC statement said.