BEIJING: China said it will cease engagement with Czech President Petr Pavel over his meeting with the Dalai Lama, escalating diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
Pavel met the 14th Dalai Lama in India in July despite strong opposition from Beijing, which considers the Tibetan spiritual leader a separatist. The Czech presidential office said the meeting with the Dalai Lama, who celebrated his 90th birthday last month, took place in a private capacity.
"China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this, and has lodged serious protests with the Czech side,” Beijing’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in written remarks on Tuesday (Aug 12). "In light of the severity of Pavel’s provocative action, China decides to cease all engagement with him.”
The central European country’s vocal criticism of human-rights violations in China, as well as active diplomatic and business ties with Taiwan, have repeatedly angered the government in Beijing. In May, Czechs blamed state-linked Chinese hackers for cyberattacks against Foreign Ministry’s unclassified networks. The Chinese Embassy in Prague then rejected the allegations as "unsubstantiated.”
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told reporters that Pavel’s meeting with the Dalai Lama had been private, and he called on China to treat it as such, CTK newswire reported on Tuesday.
Pavel, a former high-ranking Czech military and NATO official, won the presidency two years ago. He replaced Milos Zeman, a strong advocate for closer economic ties with China.
The Dalai Lama had a close relationship with the first Czech post-communist President Vaclav Havel, who repeatedly hosted him in Prague. - Bloomberg
