Prague, Feb 29 (CTK) – Prague approved a partnership agreement with Beijing, in which it pledged to recognise Taiwan an inseparable part of China and never support the independence of Tibet in any way in order to get a panda, weekly Respekt has written in its latest issue.
Prague and Beijing mayors will sign the agreement during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Czech Republic, the weekly says.
“We took a step to get a panda for Prague,” Respekt cites Prague Mayor Adriana Krnacova (ANO) as saying.
Experience from other countries shows that the stance on occupation of Tibet plays the key role in “the panda diplomacy,” Respekt writes.
The Chinese own all the pandas in the world and they only lend them abroad. When the U.S. President talked to the Dalai Lama in the White House, the Chinese removed two panda cubs from the Washington zoo in retaliation, the magazine writes.
Krnacova symbolically pushed the partnership agreement through on February 25, which is an anniversary of the Czechoslovak postwar communist coup.
Respekt writes that billionaire and ANO leader Andrej Babis wanted to gain a panda for his Stork’s Nest countryside resort already in 2014, but he later decided to try to gain the panda for the Prague zoo, apparently at any cost.
It is unlikely for partnership agreements between cities to arouse such emotions as in the case of the Prague-Beijing treaty, Respekt writes, adding that it is no surprise that the agreement caused a stir because it means a radical change in the position of the city whose district halls used to regularly hoist the Tibetan flag on March 10 in support of the persecuted nation.
It was Beijing that proposed the partnership and the agreement was written by its negotiators. Apart from the recognition of the One-China policy, the text includes general phrases about more cooperation in tourism, culture, education and health care.
Prague negotiators rejected the text several weeks ago. They said Prague usually does not deal with international politics, but Beijing refused to delete the part on One-China policy. Prague councillors then consulted the Foreign Ministry, which confirmed that the text is in harmony with the Czech foreign policy, Respekt writes.
Like most other European countries, the Czech Republic supports the territorial integrity of China in diplomatic declarations, which means that it does not protest against the Chinese claim to Taiwan. However, West European diplomats can still criticise the occupation of Tibet thanks to the general phrases, while Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek promised not to do this during his trip to China in 2014, Respekt writes.
The Prague supporters of the partnership agreement claim that the political part was a price paid for the development of bilateral trade and tourism. However, the trade and tourism have been flourishing even without any partnership agreement. Czech exports to China have been growing and the number of Chinese tourists in the country in 2015 was six times higher than in 2006, the magazine writes.
In the past, the Chinese demanded that other agreements with foreign countries included the recognition of One-China policy, too, for example when Confucius institutes, in which the Chinese language is taught, were established abroad, Respekt writes.
According to Czech sinologist Olga Lomova, China wants to win support for its policy on the broadest possible platform in the West, Respekt writes.
But after a number of American universities refused to sign agreements on the foundation of the Confucius institutes, China decided to leave out the political part from the agreements, it writes.
