The Taipei City Council on Tuesday, December 24, passed the sister city agreement drafted between Prague and Taipei in which “The City Of Taipei, Taiwan” will be used as the latter’s official name.
Chou Tai-chu, a spokesperson for the Taipei City Government, told CNA on Tuesday that the council passed the agreement without further amendment and that the mayor could sign it with his Czech counterpart during his study tour in Europe next January at the earliest.
Ying Hsiao-wei, chief secretary of the council’s Kuomintang (KMT) caucus, said she wholeheartedly agreed that Taipei should establish sister-city relations with Prague but using a mutually equal national title.
In her opinion, “The City of Taipei, Republic of China” is the correct name to use.
Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib, who has been seen as a staunch supporter of Taiwan, has openly called Beijing “an unreliable business partner” and called on the international community to be cautious about the Chinese Communist Party’s influence across the globe.
In the article, “Why we fly the Tibetan flag over Prague City Hall,” published by the Washington Post on Monday, December 23, Hrib declared China as “an unreliable business partner” which would breach deals already made with other countries for its political agenda.
The mayor said Beijing had promised €10 billion worth of investment in the Central European nation, following policy modifications on the part of the Czech government, but the promises had not been realized.
