He warned Prague to keep its promise by “severely restraining certain individual politicians” and “take effective measures to remove the negative influence of the incident”.

Hsiao was invited by Sinopsis, a Prague-based think tank, to “deliver a speech”, according to Jeff Liu, a spokesman for Taiwan’s foreign ministry.

Czech foreign minister calls for more united EU-US approach to China

24 May 2023

“She is also there to meet friends, exchange views, and interact with them before officially assuming office,” he added.

Asked if Taiwan and the Czech Republic had any new cooperation plans, Liu said his ministry would “make public related information about the two sides at an appropriate time”.

Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party has previously confirmed that Hsiao, the former de facto ambassador to Washington, visited the United States last week. Reuters and The Wall Street Journal both reported that unnamed American officials had said she visited the US “in her personal capacity”.

Liu did not disclose details of what Hsiao had done or who she visited in the US and did not say whether she would visit any other countries in Europe.

Last week Beijing said it opposed her visit to the US “in any name or under whatever pretext” and repeated its regular attacks on her as a “diehard Taiwan independence separatist”, adding that Washington should “not arrange any form of contact” between Hsiao and US government officials.

Beijing regards Taiwan as part of China and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. The Czech Republic and US, in common with most countries, does not officially recognise Taiwan as independent but are opposed to a forcible change in the status quo.