チェコ代表団の台湾訪問が象徴する「時代精神の変化」

【台北ＡＦＰ＝時事】チェコの上院議長率いる代表団90人が、30日から5日間の日程で台湾を訪問している。アレックス・アザー米厚生長官に続き今月2度目となる外国高官の訪台について、専門家らは「時代精神の変化」を指摘する。（写真は台湾・桃園の空港に到着した、チェコのミロシュ・ビストルチル上院議長）
　１９７９年に米国が台湾と断交して中国と国交を樹立した後、訪台した米高官の中でアザー長官は最高位。そのわずか２週間後のチェコ代表団の訪台は、国際社会での台湾の孤立をもくろむ中国の外交政策にとっては後退といえる。
　台湾の蔡英文総統は、ミロシュ・ビストルチル上院議長率いるチェコ代表団の台北到着を受け、「両国は中核的な価値観を数多く共有している。今後、あらゆる分野で協力が深まることを期待している」とツイッターに投稿した。
　蔡氏が１月の総統選挙で圧勝し、再選を果たして以降、台湾との関係を拡大する国が増えている。そうした国々の多くは中国の外交政策の強硬化を警戒しており、チェコもその一つだ。

■中国の台湾包囲網 「越えられない壁ではない」
　国際関係論の専門家で、台北を拠点に研究活動を行っている伊ローマ大学ラ・サピエンツァのファブリツィオ・ボッツァート氏は、チェコ代表団の訪台で「中国政府が台湾を包囲して築こうとしている政治的・外交的な壁は、越えられないものではないこと」が確認されたと指摘する。
　「このような公然と反旗を翻す取り組みは、欧州においてさえ、時代精神が『中国政府との見解の一致』から『中国政府への抵抗』へと変化しつつあることを示している」と、ボッツァート氏はＡＦＰに語った。
　蔡氏は、中国の強権主義に対抗したい諸外国に対し、台湾を進歩的で民主的な同盟国としてアピールしてきた。台湾が新型コロナウイルスの感染拡大阻止に成功し、感染予防のための保護具を支援物資として世界中に送ったことも、台湾の立場を強化する追い風となった。
　英ノッティンガム大学中国政策研究所のジョナサン・サリバン所長は、チェコ代表団の訪台は台湾にとって、中国政府の「圧力と疎外化が続く中で、心理的な励みとなった」との見方を示した。
　その上で、「新疆ウイグル自治区をはじめ、香港や南シナ海など多岐にわたる問題において、中国が取る立場や行動は民主主義国の価値観と乖離（かいり）している。そのため、今後はより多くの政治家が立ち上がり『われわれにとっては、それではだめだ』と表明するようになるだろう」とサリバン氏は述べた。
　ビストルチル上院議長は今回の訪台について、旧ソビエト連邦の強権体制の影響下にあった旧チェコスロバキアの共産政権を打倒した１９８９年の「ビロード革命」の指導者、故バーツラフ・ハベル元大統領の遺志を継ぐ旅になると述べている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/09/01-11:08）

A Czech delegation arrived in Taipei Sunday in the second high-profile foreign visit to Taiwan this month -- a setback for China's campaign to keep the democratic island isolated from the rest of the world.
The 90-member group, led by senate speaker Milos Vystrcil, landed two weeks after US health chief Alex Azar marshalled the highest level mission to Taiwan by Washington since it switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979.
Vystrcil will deliver a speech in Taiwan's parliament and meet President Tsai Ing-wen during a five-day trip described by Taipei as standing up to the intimidation of authoritarian China.
Beijing views Taiwan as its own territory -- vowing to one day seize it by force if necessary -- and bristles at any moves by foreign governments to recognise or conduct official exchanges with Taipei.
It has described Vystrcil's visit as a despicable act.
His insistence to go to Taiwan to carry out this so-called 'visit' deliberately wrecks the political foundation of China-Czech relations, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Thursday.
China has ramped up diplomatic, military and economic pressure on Taiwan since Tsai came to power in 2016 as she views the island as a sovereign nation and not part of one China.
Tsai won a landslide re-election in January and a growing number of countries are expanding ties with the island, especially those wary of China's increasingly muscular foreign policy.
The Czech Republic is one such country.
Earlier this year the city of Prague sparked Beijing's ire by signing a partnership agreement with Taipei that prompted Shanghai to cut ties as a sister city.
Prague mayor Zdenek Hrib, who signed the agreement, is on this week's delegation to Taiwan.
- Changing sentiment -
Fabrizio Bozzato, a Taipei-based international relations expert with the University of Rome La Sapienza, said the Czech visit shows the political-diplomatic wall that Beijing has tried to build all around the island is not impassable.
Such openly defiant initiatives also signal that, even in Europe, the zeitgeist is changing from 'Beijing consensus' to 'resisting Beijing', he told AFP.
Jonathan Sullivan, director of the University of Nottingham's China Programmes, said Tsai has pushed to build connections with countries it has informal relations with.
The Czech visit, he said, was a psychological boost during continued pressures and marginalisation by Beijing.
But such public demonstrations of support and engagement with Taiwan are not going to become typical overnight, he told AFP.
Modern-day Taiwan has been ruled separately from China since the end of a civil war in 1949.
For decades it was a harsh autocracy like China. But since the late 1990s it has evolved into one of Asia's most progressive democracies. Last year it became the first place in Asia to legalise gay marriage.
Tsai has marketed the island as a progressive democratic ally to other nations hoping to push back against Beijing's authoritarianism.
That push has been further helped by Taiwan's defeat of its coronavirus outbreak and its global aid shipments of personal protection equipment.
In a speech to an Australian think tank on Thursday, Tsai described Taiwan as being on the frontline of freedom and democracy as China cracks down on dissent in nearby Hong Kong and elsewhere.
I think that as China's positions and behaviours on a range of issues from Xinjiang to Hong Kong to the South China Sea diverge from the values of democratic countries, we will see more politicians standing up to say 'this is not OK with us', Sullivan said.
The Czech Republic experienced decades of authoritarian Soviet Union rule.
Vystrcil has said his Taiwan trip will fulfil the legacy of the late president Vaclav Havel, a dissident leader of the 1989 Velvet Revolution which toppled communism in the former Czechoslovakia.