TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — After China cried foul over Czech President-elect Petr Pavel’s call with President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday (Jan. 30), former Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek wrote that Taiwan will never be China.

On Monday, two days after winning the election in the Czech Republic, Pavel and Tsai spoke on the phone in a move that was described by Reuters as “highly unusual” and “likely to anger China.” During the election campaign, Pavel had publicly expressed his disagreement with his predecessor, Milos Zeman's China policy, advocating closer trade relations with European countries with shared democratic values.

Shortly after Pavel’s plan to call Tsai was made public, the China Foreign Ministry was reported as saying it had contacted Prague regarding the matter. "The Chinese side ... is currently seeking verification with the Czech side, (we) hope the Czech side strictly upholds the one-China principle," the Chinese ministry was cited as saying.

On Tuesday (Jan. 31), Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning accused Pavel of “forsaking China’s repeated dissuasion and communication.” She said, “China urges the Czech Republic to immediately take effective action to rectify the mistake in order to lessen the incident’s negative impact.”

In response, Topolanek wrote on Twitter, “I condemn the condemnation of Chinese diplomacy.” He added, “I am very concerned. How long will we play the forced game on ‘one China?’ Taiwan is not China and let’s believe it never will be, just like the Republic of Korea is not the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Ukraine is not Russia.”