Authors

Zuzana Veselá¹;  ¹ Angloamerican University, Czech Republic

Discussion

The presentation clarifies developments in Czech foreign policy on China following pivotal changes to actors who previously defined a firmly pro-Beijing policy. The China-supporting president Miloš Zeman faces the end of his presidency in 2023 as well as poor health. The key Czech pro-Beijing lobby, the PPF group, lost close to 75% of its business in China due to changes of Chinese loan regulations and therefore partially reoriented to other markets. In 2021 the company suffered a further blow, the tragic death of its founder Petr Kellner, who had close ties to Zeman. The Chinese actors on the Czech political scene faced corruption scandals - e.g. Ye Jianming, director of influential Chinese financial group CEFC and special advisor to Zeman disappeared in 2018 after being accused of corruption by Xi Jinping. Since 2021, the newly elected Czech government with PRC hawks such as Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský and Senate President Miloš Vystrčil has pivoted the Czech foreign policy increasingly towards Taiwan. Yet some Beijing supporters such as Czech Ambassador to the UN Jakub Kulhánek remain, splitting the Czech foreign policy. The article tackles the following questions: How has the Czech foreign policy on China changed since 2021? Who are the key actors shaping Czech foreign policy on China today and to what extent do the previous pro-Beijing actors remain influential? And finally, how has the PCR responded to these changes, esp. the increasing cooperation with Taiwan?