Slovak press criticises Czech politicians’ pro-China statement

November 8, 2016;

Prague Daily Monitor, 8 November 2016

Bratislava, Nov 7 (CTK correspondent) – The four Czech supreme elected officials have collectively played the role of a humbled servant in their relations to Beijing, Slovak daily Dennik N writes yesterday on their pro-China statement issued during the Dalai Lama’s recent visit to Prague.

Same as Slovakia, where President Andrej Kiska met the Tibetan Dalai Lama, the Czech Republic did not escape China’s punishment either.

“When Czech Christian Democrat (KDU-CSL) Culture Minister Daniel Herman met the Dalai Lama, the president, the PM and the heads of both houses of parliament in their joint statement assured Chinese communists about their unfading devotion and they distanced themselves from their own minister,” the daily writes.

It adds that Czech politicians thereby provoked indignation of a major part of Czech society since this was an extremely humiliating behaviour of representatives of the country that until recently subordinated to another totalitarian regime.

The paper comments on the statement signed by President Milos Zeman, PM Bohuslav Sobotka and the upper and lower houses’ heads, Milan Stech and Jan Hamacek (all three Social Democrats, CSSD) in which they distanced themselves from the meetings of several politicians with the Dalai Lama, saying they were not an expression of a change in the Czech official one-China policy.

The paper writes that China punished Slovakia by cancelling the Saturday bilateral talks with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-Social Democracy) before the summit of 16 Central and Eastern European countries and China in Riga, Latvia, while the Prague was punished by cancelling a planned visit of Czech Agriculture Minister Marian Jurecka (KDU-CSL) to China.

Though the prime minister is of another weight category than a less important minister, one may learn a lesson of these examples showing that China demands an unconditional acceptance of its view of the world from its “partners” of the same size as the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

“Any deviation is unacceptable and it is punished. Regardless of how much you humble yourselves before to satisfy the (Chinese) comrades, they will humiliate you for the second time immediately to demonstrate that the first attempt was not enough for them and you should have tried much harder. This is exactly what they did to the Czech Republic,” the paper writes, adding that such behaviour of China towards the rest of the world is nothing new.