China angered by new Czech president's Taiwan call

(ANSA-AFP) - PRAGUE, JAN 31 - China criticised Czech president-elect Petr Pavel on Tuesday for holding a telephone call with Taiwan's president and foreign minister the day before. Beijing is trying to keep Taiwan isolated on the world stage and opposes countries having official exchanges with Taipei. It claims self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as part of its territory to be seized one day, by force if necessary. "Pavel...

trampled on China's red line," said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning. "This severely interferes in China's internal affairs and has hurt the feelings of the Chinese people," she added. Beijing has urged Prague to "immediately take effective measures to eliminate the negative impact of this incident and avoid irreparable damage being sustained to China-Czech relations", Mao said. (ANSA-AFP).

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