In August, Beijing announced it was cutting contact with Czech President Petr Pavel after his private meeting with the Dalai Lama in India. In reality, there was little contact to sever. The era of his predecessor – former President Miloš Zeman, who once called Xi Jinping his “young friend” and told Chinese television that Czechs should “learn from China how to stabilize society” – is long gone.
Over the past four years, China-Czechia relations have reached a historic low under the government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala. Yet this collapse cannot be explained solely by a change of government. The downfall began earlier, with the spectacular failure of Zeman’s attempt to “restart” ties, which peaked between 2016 and 2018. What was once billed as a “golden era” of partnership quickly revealed itself as hollow promises, re
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