A view of the Taipei city, Taiwan island Photo: Unsplash

China strongly condemns any visit by European politicians to China's Taiwan island as an "egregious" act, as Chinese diplomats and the Foreign Ministry urge them to stop interacting with and sending wrong signals to "Taiwan independence" forces or using the Taiwan question as a pretext to interfere in China's internal affairs.

Chinese analysts said visits by individual politicians to the island are to pander to US hype on the Taiwan question. It is part of the US' strategy to contain and suppress China. They warned such provocative acts could potentially shake the political foundation between China and Europe, and that China may take "tit for tat" countermeasures against such provocations.

The spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Germany called the visit of a German official to China's Taiwan "egregious" after the Chinese Foreign Ministry condemned the visit on the same day.

Both the Chinese embassy and the ministry called on the German side to abide by the one-China principle, immediately stop interacting with and sending wrong signals to "Taiwan independence" forces, and stop using the Taiwan question as a pretext to interfere in China's internal affairs. 

Germany and the island inked an agreement on science and technology after Germany's Federal Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger paid a visit to the island. She is the first German minister to visit Taiwan in 26 years, CNA reported.

Likewise, the speaker of the Czech Parliament's lower house Marketa Pekarova Adamova announced she will lead a large delegation of around 150 people for a five-day visit to Taiwan island. 

The Czech announcement recognizes the one-China principle but still maintains such contacts.

In recent years, the Taiwan authorities have been beefing up efforts to play tricks on the diplomatic stages of Europe to rope in parliaments and governmental officials, including those from central and eastern European countries like the Czech Republic and Poland, Zhao Junjie, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of European Studies, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

In the meantime, at the instigation of the US, heightened anti-China voices have been heard from some anti-China forces and think tanks in Europe. They attempt to provoke China and test its reaction through their anti-China performances, Zhao noted. 

Such tricks from a handful of European politicians and secessionist Taiwan authorities are nothing more than pandering to the US' intensified hype on the Taiwan question and a strategic rung of its strategy to contain and suppress China, Zhao said. 

The Taiwan question concerns China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and involves China's core interests. The one-China principle is a universal consensus of the international community and a basic norm in international relations. It is also the political foundation of China-Germany relations, the Chinese spokesperson of the embassy stressed. 

"Some high-level officials in EU institutions and anti-China lawmakers visiting the island all violated the one-China principle… we must nip this in the bud to prevent them from shaking the political foundations between China and Europe. If the dangerous situation is not contained in the first place, it will evolve," Fu Cong, head of the Chinese Mission to the EU, told the Global Times in a recent exclusive interview.

"We always make it very clear to the EU that this is a 'red line' for China and you should not touch it. Otherwise, China-EU relations will face serious problems," Fu said. 

The world is constantly changing, and so do China, the US and European nations, which means there will be more uncertainties in China-EU relations. The constant change in leadership in the EU could be one of the changing factors, Zhao noted. 

In reply to the visit of European politicians to Taiwan island, both the Chinese embassy and the ministry said that China will do what is necessary to resolutely defend China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

Zhao believes that China will increase efforts to take "tit for tat" countermeasures against such proactive moves of anti-China clowns, including listing relevant politicians and related enterprises and interests on blacklists, and will restrict their access to China and its markets.