In August, Beijing introduced it was slicing contact with Czech President Petr Pavel after his non-public assembly with the Dalai Lama in India. In actuality, there was little contact to sever. The period of his predecessor – former President Miloš Zeman, who as soon as referred to as Xi Jinping his “younger buddy” and informed Chinese language tv that Czechs ought to “study from China how you can stabilize society” – is lengthy gone.
Over the previous 4 years, China-Czechia relations have reached a historic low below the federal government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala. But this collapse can’t be defined solely by a change of presidency. The downfall started earlier, with the spectacular failure of Zeman’s try and “restart” ties, which peaked between 2016 and 2018. What was as soon as billed as a “golden period” of partnership rapidly revealed itself as hole guarantees, reputational prices, and rising public suspicion.
When China’s prime chief Xi Jinping visited Prague in 2016, Zeman forged China as a strategic accomplice that may rescue Czech industries and rework Prague into Beijing’s “gateway to Europe.” Chinese language conglomerate CEFC, whose chairman Ye Jianming grew to become an advisor to Zeman, was promoted because the “flagship of Chinese language investments.” On the identical time, Czech enterprise elites had been deeply invested in nearer ties. The nation’s largest firm, PPF, and its subsidiary Residence Credit score relied on political assist for his or her entry to China’s shopper loans market, leveraging shut ties with Zeman to guard their enterprise pursuits.
However the promised billions in funding by no means materialized. CEFC collapsed in 2018 amid corruption scandals, and Ye was quietly disappeared by the Chinese language Communist Celebration’s disciplinary organs, whereas nonetheless formally an advisor to the Czech president. PPF’s place in China additionally eroded as stricter monetary regulation, the pandemic, and rising home rivals made its operations more and more unviable. This 12 months, the corporate lastly exited China, promoting its enterprise at a fraction of its supposed worth.
As an alternative of financial windfalls, Prague was left with considerations about elite seize, propaganda, and safety vulnerabilities, compounded by the bitter aftertaste of unfulfilled expectations. Czech intelligence companies repeatedly warned that China, alongside Russia, posed a major menace to nationwide safety.
This complete story is vital to grasp the context of the dynamics of notion of China and its affect within the Czech Republic. In the China Index, which makes use of on the premise of quantitative strategies to measure Chinese language affect in over 100 international locations, Czechia will get comparatively low scores in each editions (printed in 2022 and 2024). One motive is that whereas the Index captures observable cases of Chinese language affect – together with political contacts, commerce dependence, and media echoing – it can’t cowl each home initiative that not directly helps Beijing’s pursuits. And as was defined, native actors performed an vital half in pro-PRC efforts in Czechia.
For instance, PPF – by means of its subsidiary Residence Credit score – funded a marketing campaign to “rationalize” the talk about China and counter important voices within the nation, significantly the mission Sinopsis, which was important of Czech coverage towards China and had reported on PPF’s enterprise actions in China. Equally, the circles round Zeman acted as proxies for Beijing whereas attacking the late president of the Senate, Jaroslav Kubera, for intending to go to Taiwan.
One of many modifications highlighted by the Index is a decline of affect within the areas of overseas and home politics. This displays not solely a broader shift in Czech political sentiment towards China, but additionally the transformation of the political panorama after the 2021 elections. That 12 months, the Social Democratic Celebration and the Communist Celebration didn’t go the election quorum for the primary time; these two events had essentially the most frequent contacts with the CCP by means of its Worldwide Liaison Division. Whereas ties with the Czech Communists had been naturally the closest, contacts with sure figures within the Social Democratic Celebration typically proved extra helpful. As an example, when the celebration management sought to revive China-Czechia relations in the course of the COVID-19 interval, illustrated by their servile reception of Chinese language medical support at Prague Airport.
Whereas the Communists and Social Democrats had been looking for a comeback in 2025, the October elections have as soon as once more stored them out of Parliament. As an alternative, the populist ANO motion of billionaire and former Prime Minister Andrej Babis scored a landslide victory and is now exploring coalition choices. Though a number of mixtures are mathematically potential, Babis’ first selection for talks seems to be the far-right SPD and the previously fringe right-wing populist group Motorists for Themselves, which has now entered nationwide politics for the primary time.
The chief overseas coverage advisor to the Motorists is former MEP Jan Zahradil, lengthy one of the vital distinguished pro-China voices on the Czech proper and an outspoken advocate of a “multipolar” world order. A fierce critic of the present authorities’s overseas coverage, Zahradil beforehand chaired the EU-China friendship group within the European Parliament and has lately launched a brand new Asia-focused suppose tank.
Because the Czech political panorama shifts as soon as once more, debates over the nation’s method to China are more likely to comply with. A full return to the Zeman-era theatrics appears inconceivable, however the voices calling for a renewed “rationalization” of relations with Beijing are rising louder.
