Asia

‘I Am a Taiwanese,’ Czech Speaker Tells Taiwan Assembly, Irking China

Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil is pictured after delivering a speech at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, Taiwan, on Tuesday. / Kyodo

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By Kyodo News 2 September 2020

TAIPEI—The leader of the Czech Republic’s senate declared himself a Taiwanese in a speech to Taiwan’s legislature on Tuesday, channeling the late US President John F. Kennedy, who in 1963 famously called himself a “Berliner” to express US solidarity with the citizens of then-besieged West Berlin in defiance of the Soviet Union.

“I am a Taiwanese,” Milos Vystrcil, who is leading an 89-member delegation to Taiwan for a six-day visit that began Sunday, said in Mandarin Chinese to express his support for the self-ruled island, earning him a standing ovation lasting for nearly a minute.