Sympathy for Taiwan and angry caricatures: The small Czech Republic takes on China
Created: 06/07/2022 09:22
By: Sven Hauberg
China's head of state and party leader Xi Jinping was repeatedly compared to Winnie the Pooh in Chinese Internet memes - until the censors stepped in.
The artist Badiucao took up the theme in one of his paintings.
© Badiucao/DOX Center for Contemporary Art
It looks like a David versus Goliath fight: the Czech Republic, which has held the EU Council Presidency since July, is seeking proximity to Taiwan and is increasingly distancing itself from China.
Munich/Prague – China's head of state and party leader Xi Jinping is kneeling on the dead body of Winnie the Pooh, holding a hunting rifle in his hand, his gaze expressing boundless satisfaction: the picture comes from Badiucao, a Chinese cartoonist, and is currently hanging in one Museum in the Czech capital Prague.
Another image shows the famous Tank Man who once bravely stood in front of the tanks rolling down Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Only this time there are no soldiers looking out of the tanks, but huge corona viruses, from which the man is trying to protect himself with an umbrella.
Born in Shanghai, Badiucao now lives in Australia.
His provocative works could not be shown publicly in China.
And if the Chinese embassy in Prague had its way, the dissident's pictures would not be visible in the Czech Republic either.
Because Beijing's diplomats had tried to prevent the "MADe in China" exhibition before it opened.
Curator Michaela Silpochova told
fr.de
from
IPPEN.MEDIA
that they were warned on the phone not to hold the exhibition: “They urged 'not to hold' the exhibition because, in their opinion, it 'hurts the feelings of the Chinese people ' and would damage mutual relations between the two countries'.”
Czech Republic: Frontal criticism of China
Jan Lipavsky, Czech Foreign Minister, also received a call from Beijing's representatives in Prague.
The embassy informed him that the exhibition could affect relations between the two countries, Lipavsky said, according to Czech media.
Did the Chinese threats worry him?
Hardly likely.
Because Lipavsky has long been on a confrontational course with China.
Image by Badiucao © Badiucao/DOX Center for Contemporary Art
10.5 million people live in the Czech Republic, less than half as many as China's capital Beijing.
And yet the small country appears with a surprising self-confidence.
In May, for example, Foreign Minister Lipavsky pondered that his country could leave the 16+1 group, a forum to which China belongs alongside 16 countries from Central and Eastern Europe.
The aim of the group is to promote cooperation in the economic and cultural fields.
However, Lipavsky complained: "The most important initiatives of 16+1, economic diplomacy and the promise of massive investments and mutually beneficial trade, have not yet been fulfilled even after ten years." That was frontal criticism of China.
Beijing's Foreign Ministry responded by pointing out that the trade volume between China and the 16 participating countries rose to a "historic high of 133.55 billion US dollars" in 2021 despite the corona pandemic, an increase of 32 percent over the previous year.
"Anyone who is impartial" can state that the cooperation between China and the 16 Eastern and Central European countries "really brings something".
China is the Czech Republic's second largest trading partner, but only number 17 when it comes to exports abroad.
The Czech Republic is less dependent on China than Germany, for example
"The direct dependency is limited, which gives the Czech government more leeway in international politics," says analyst Grzegorz Stec to
FR.de
from
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
Stec conducts research at the Merics think tank on relations between China and the EU.
However, the indirect dependencies on China are greater because many Czech companies are suppliers to German companies, which in turn export their products to China.
"As a result, the attitude that Berlin takes towards China is gaining in importance for Prague." And unlike in the Czech Republic, there is still no clear Beijing course to be seen in this country, but the China strategy announced by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is still a long time coming.
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But it wasn't just disappointment about the lack of investment that led to the Little Ice Age between China and the Czech Republic.
Many Czechs were annoyed that Miloš Zeman, President of the Republic since 2013, is demonstratively trying to get closer to the Chinese leadership.
Zeman, a former communist, said shortly after taking office that he wanted to learn how China had "stabilized" its society.
On his initiative, police officers also took action against Tibetan activists whom Zeman described as “mentally handicapped individuals”.
In 2015, he hired a Chinese man as his economic adviser who was said to have ties to the People's Liberation Army.
"The political scandals related to Zeman's cooperation with Beijing" have, according to Merics expert Stec,
Czech President Miloš Zeman (right) apparently got on well with China's head of state and party leader Xi Jinping during his visit to Prague in 2016.
© CTK Photo/Imago
The Czech Republic is turning away from China - and is looking for proximity to Taiwan
While relations with China continued to deteriorate, the Czech Republic drew even closer to Taiwan - the country that Beijing regards as part of its own territory and wants to recapture by force if necessary.
Officially, the Czech Republic, like most other countries worldwide, does not recognize the Taiwanese government.
Nevertheless, the informal relations between the governments in Prague and Taipei have been getting closer and closer for years.
In October last year, the Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu visited the Czech Republic and emphasized, among other things, that democratic states must support each other.
Wu was accompanied by a large trade delegation, and a few months later Taipei announced plans to invest US$200 million in the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Slovakia.
Lithuania in particular had come into conflict with China in recent years.
The small Baltic country had allowed the Taiwanese government to open a representative office in Vilnius under its own name instead of the usual name of the capital Taipei.
Beijing responded to the move with massive economic sanctions.
In Prague they haven't gone that far, but they support Lithuania in the conflict with China.
In addition, the Chinese course towards Russia seems to be causing dismay in the Czech centre-right government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala, which is supporting Kyiv with arms deliveries, among other things.
China is officially neutral in the Ukraine conflict, but has supported the Kremlin's course since the escalation of the war and has intensified its verbal attacks against NATO.
"Beijing's tacit support for Russia led to a sea change," says Merics analyst Stec.
"By picking up on Moscow's calls for Europe's security architecture to be adjusted, Beijing is challenging some of the fundamental security interests of countries in the region and increasingly making China a security concern."
Chinese support for Russia would have "significant implications for Sino-European relations".
The Czech Republic has held the EU Council Presidency since July 1st.
"Relations with China are not high on the agenda," says Stec.
"But should China support Russia more, Prague will probably campaign for a more self-confident China policy among other EU members." As a motto for the next six months, Prague has chosen the title of a work by the politician and human rights activist Václav Havel: "Europe as a task “.
An indication that the Czech Republic could use its presidency to promote initiatives to strengthen democracy.
The Indo-Pacific will probably also be on the agenda of the Czech EU Council Presidency - which is surprising given the fact that the country has no access to the sea.
However, Prague wants the EU's trade relations with the region
where Beijing is currently expanding its sphere of influence.
That's what Edita Hrdá, Prague's representative to the EU, said in a recent interview.
The history of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to the present
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In Beijing, the Czechs' anti-China course has long been recognized.
In April, Huo Yuzhen, China's special envoy for the region, traveled to Prague to promote better relations.
That didn't help much.
During the visit, Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky made it clear to the Chinese that his country would take a very close look at China's conduct in the Ukraine war.
Support for Russia would have "significant implications for Sino-European relations," Lipavsky said in a radio interview.
"As the country that holds the EU presidency, we can influence that." Merics analyst Grzegorz Stec believes that China's relations with the Czech Republic are now more about "limiting the damage than trying to save Prague." win back".
For the Prague exhibition organizer Michaela Silpochova one thing is clear: one should not be intimidated by China.
When asked to cancel the Badiucao exhibition, she gave "the only possible answer": "We will not give in to pressure from officials in a foreign country." She thinks it's good that her country is distancing itself from China - "absolutely!"
(sh)
