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Chapter 6 Conclusion
This thesis was looking and the Czech Chinese relations in which the PRC can exercise the sharp power, which consequently leads to a distortion of democracy in the Czech Republic. For that reason, this thesis comes up with possible tools that the Czech Republic can employ to combat Chinese sharp power activities and still have balanced relations with the PRC. It is apparent that it is not only the PRC whose activities are helping to distort democracy in the Czech Republic. Such behavior is exercised from other state actors both authoritarian and democratic, moreover similar tactics are also undertaken by private actors such as multinational companies. But as stated at the beginning, due to the limitation and the scope of the thesis as well as research interest, this thesis is looking solely at the strategies and actions conducted by the PRC in the Czech Chinese relations using the definition of sharp power which describes such behavior conducted specifically by authoritarian regimes such as Russia or the PRC.
This thesis was looking at the Czech Chinese relations from the 2013 restart until April 2020, employing interpretive research method which puts the meaning-making actions of individuals or groups into the center of the research then analytically disclosing those meaning-making practices, while showing how those practices configure to generate observable outcomes. On top of that, this thesis interviewed four Czech nationals who have experience dealing with the PRC. Then based on the data gathered from the primary and secondary sources as well as from the interviews this thesis provides the empirical evidence of the Chinese sharp power in three spheres of political and economic relations, media and academia, and how that distorts the democracy in the Czech Republic. Because of that this paper then comes up with the possible tools to fix the issue of the sharp power and its effect on the Czech Republic.
In the political and economic sphere, the main factor is the Czech president Milos Zeman who invested his political capital into Czech Chinese economic relations, and in doing so forsook all other democratic values and norms and together with his behavior took the Chinese side in occasions like the letter of four or speaking against the BIS's warnings against PRC hindering the Czech democracy. The reason why the Czech statesman acts in this way is the economic leverage that PRC has and because of that can exercise sharp power. This economic influence is also
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connected with the lack of knowledge among the Czech statesmen in other words, knowledge asymmetry. Many of them do not know how the Chinese system works and their advisors might be ill-chosen like in the case of president Zeman. As the interviews also concluded there is a need for redefining the approach of the Czech state towards the PRC more confidently so cases of letter of four or pathetic thanking to PRC for bought supplies will not happen again. Because of that, this thesis concludes that the first tool that should be implemented to be able to defend better against the Chinese sharp power is to tackle the issue of the knowledge symmetry in the political sphere of the Czech Republic. The state is not a private company therefore the Zeman's economic policy towards PRC should be revised with advice mainly from academia which can provide broader information about the PRC and how to deal with it. The second and very connected tool is the newly prepared law limiting foreign investments and purchases in the Czech Republic if it would be deemed potentially dangerous to national security. Implementing this law would prevent future highjacking of foreign policy like was done by Milos Zeman and leaving the country vulnerable to the Chinese pressure exactly because of the economic leverage it has.
In the media sphere, this thesis concludes that PRC is indeed influencing the Czech media in which it has shares and that there are other actors like PFF which also are influencing the media because of their business interest in the PRC. Their influence then distorts democracy in the Czech Republic as they poison the information stream, do not provide the context, or attempt to silence their critics.
Therefore, this thesis concludes that the first tool that the Czech Republic can employ is again passing the legislation concerning foreign acquisitions in the Czech Republic which ought to have a section dealing with media as well. But it should be moreover encompassing than it is proposed as the volume limit is only applicable to the two major written media. Another aspect is the proper information about the PRC which has to be supplied to the public. Again there are Czech actors serving Chinese sharp power whose limiting would be against the freedom of speech and other democratic values it is important to point out their connections as well as the hypocrisy of the Chinese media which enjoy total freedom in the Czech Republic but in PRC they are heavily censored and foreign journalist as well. Therefore, under the profiles of such media should be noted that they are sponsored by the Chinese government in order for people to view the information more critically. Concerning the Czech actors, there is not much that can be done systematically but only supporting investigative journalists who do not have any financial ties to the PRC.
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Czech academia is affected by the Chinese sharp power as well. In the sinology departments, academics have to face possible repercussion in form of denying the entry to the PRC if they would publish critical works which distort the democracy in the Czech Republic as it should have been them who would contribute valid information to the debate about the PRC and what would be the best way to deal with it. In other spheres of the Czech academia, the problem is very similar to the political one that of the knowledge asymmetry. A lot of universities, mainly engineering ones, do not have tools to do research regarding their co-operation with the Chinese counterparts which then gives the PRC ability to exercise sharp power. Therefore, the biggest need is to increase the general knowledge about how the Chinese academic system works and the lack of its academic freedoms together with the systemic body which could do a research on behalf of any university or an academic institution which intends to establish cooperation with the Chinese counterpart. A majority of the universities in the Czech Republic are public thus operated by the state. This responsible body should be established under the ministry of education.
In conclusion, this thesis was able to answer the first research question that Chinese sharp power affects the state of the democracy in the Czech Republic demonstrating on many examples in the Czech Chinese relations from all three spheres. Concerning the second research question, what tools can the Czech Republic employ to combat the Chinese sharp power while maintaining its openness? This thesis was able to propose some tools that the Czech Republic can employ to combat the Chinese sharp power which would help to balance the relationship between these two countries. As this is not a policy paper the findings serves as guidelines in which directions the policies can be crafted and future research can build on these findings such as exploring the possibilities of law limiting foreign investments, establishing the central body helping the Czech universities and other academic institutions doing risk assessment concerning establishing cooperation with the Chinese counterparts or explore which direction would be the most effective in pointing out the state of the Chinese media and its work in the Czech Republic.
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