Taipei [Taiwan], May 19 : In a firm act of resistance against political pressure from China, Czech publisher Mi:Lu Publishing kept two Taiwan flags on display throughout the four-day Book World Prague international book fair, which concluded on Sunday as per a report in the Taiwan News.
Members of the Chinese delegation reportedly asked that the flags be removed, prompting international attention and local solidarity with Taiwan's presence at the fair, the report in Taiwan News said.
Editor-in-Chief Tzu-hsuan told Taiwan's Central News Agency that many Czech and Taiwanese visitors stopped by the Mi:Lu stand to express support. The publisher also received numerous online messages voicing encouragement.
According to CNA, members of the Chinese delegation had specifically demanded that the Taiwan flags be taken down, but the publishing house refused. The situation quickly became a flashpoint for broader issues of censorship and political interference in cultural spaces.
Tomas Rizek, founder of Mi:Lu Publishing, told Czech Radio, "We originally didn't want to display the flag here, but when they told us that Taiwan didn't exist, we decided we needed to change the design of our stand." Rizek said a woman - "probably an agent from the Chinese embassy" - was seen taking pictures of the stand and flags "at least four times in 20 minutes." When his colleague offered her a book, "she emphasised that she didn't want any, that she wasn't taking photos of books."
Rizek said he took a photo of the woman in return. She was later spotted at a booth representing Chinese publishers. When approached by Czech Radio, she declined to comment, replying in Chinese that she did not want to make any statements, reported Taiwan News.
The exchange fuelled concerns that Chinese representatives were actively surveilling the Taiwan-supporting booth and intimidating exhibitors through repeated monitoring.
Book fair director Radovan Auer confirmed that the incident was not isolated. "I have information from Rizek that Chinese people go there and take pictures of them all the time," Auer told Czech Radio. "Rizek handles it with great grace, for example, by offering them his books, which he has in Chinese." Auer said the fair operates with a policy of openness and inclusivity. "Russia is a terrorist state, we are strict about that, but otherwise we try to be as open as possible," he said.
According to Auer, pressure from China began even before the event. The delegation asked fair organisers to remove the logos of Taiwan's Ministry of Culture and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office from the event website and later demanded that Mi:Lu remove the Taiwan flags from their stand - demands that were rejected, Taiwan News reported.
"They immediately filed a request to remove them, but we didn't react in any way," Auer said. "The ministry replied that we are in a democratic country and Book World is a private institution."
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