China's President Xi Jinping begins a two-day state visit to Prague on Monday to promote business ties, crowning efforts by Czech President Milos Zeman to build a strategic relationship with Beijing.
PRAGUE: China's President Xi Jinping begins a two-day state
visit to Prague on Monday to promote business ties, crowning efforts by
Czech President Milos Zeman to build a strategic relationship with
Beijing.
Zeman has been keen to build stronger ties with China and
Russia since his election in 2013 rather than with Prague's partners in
NATO and the European Union, though the government, not the president,
bears the main responsibility for Czech foreign policy.
Xi's visit, the first by a Chinese president, will include a
business forum and the signing of Chinese investments in the nation of
10.6 million people. China is Prague's third biggest trade partner, with
bilateral trade worth some US$21 billion.
"The Chinese and Czech sides should without delay raise the
position of mutual relations, see them from a strategic viewpoint and
long-term perspective," Xi said in an article published in the Czech
daily Pravo on Saturday.
China was deeply appreciative that Zeman was the only
Western leader to attend a massive military parade in Beijing last
September marking the end of World War Two.
On a previous 2014 trip, Zeman said he had come to China to
"learn how to increase economic growth and how to stabilise society"
rather than "teach market economy or human rights".
That marks a sharp contrast with the Czech Republic's first
post-communist president, Vaclav Havel, a Soviet-era dissident and
personal friend of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
On Monday, Zeman will invite Xi to a presidential residence outside Prague, the first foreign dignitary to be hosted there.
The special treatment Xi will receive has prompted protests
from the Czech opposition who have compared it to the warm welcome
extended to Soviet leaders during the Cold War.
An unknown suspect defaced dozens of Chinese flags on a main
airport road with black paint on Saturday and human rights activists
plan demonstrations.
Attempts by Chinese intelligence to build influence in Czech
political circles have raised eyebrows in the Czech
counter-intelligence service. In its 2014 annual report it said unnamed
Czech civil servants and politicians were aiding these efforts.
CEFC BUYING
Chinese investments so far have mostly consisted of
acquisitions by CEFC China Energy, a firm with unknown owners which says
it is the sixth biggest private enterprise in China.
Last year CEFC took a 9.9 percent stake in the Czech J&T
Finance Group, which owns banks in the Czech Republic and Slovakia,
stakes in airline Travel Service, in the Lobkowicz breweries, a media
house and football club Slavia Praha.
CEFC is completing investments worth 18 billion crowns
(US$747.29 million) to add to 20 billion crowns spent already, Executive
Vice President Marcela Hrda told Reuters. They include finance, energy,
healthcare, industry, tourism and e-commerce.
A Czech source said CEFC was also interested in the Czech GE Money Bank, which has been put up for sale.
The CEFC parent holding is chaired by Ye Jianming, who was
given the post of an adviser to Zeman in a highly unusual move to
promote relations. The company has a defence industry licence, which is
unusual for a private enterprise in China.
The Czechs have so far lured more job-creating direct investment from Taiwan, such as computer maker Foxconn .
(Additonal reporting by Aizhu Chen and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Gareth Jones)
- Reuters
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