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Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1 Research Background
The Czech Republic became an independent country after the Velvet revolution in 1989 and followed the partition of Czechoslovakia which took effect on the 1st of January 1993. Now the independent Czech Republic could create its own foreign policy which was in the direction of the necessary changes to be able to join the free market and other international communities. The most important being joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1997, and then in 2014 joining the European Union.
Even though the Czech Republic was now free to create its foreign policy and was no longer forced to listen to the Soviets, it nonetheless chose to keep the official ties with the People's Republic of China as was the norm among all major western countries, although the relations were not cordial at all due to the first Czech president Vaclav Havel who used to be a dissident and as a president, he was very outspoken about the human rights and a personal friend of His Holiness Dalai Lama as well as his support for Taiwan rejoining the UN.
The People's Republic of China started to emerge as an important international player in the 1980's with its economic reforms. With its growing economic importance came the acceptance to the international community which was finalized in 2001 when it officially became a member of the WTO. From the early 2000s to 2011 China's GDP was growing on average by 10% each year. This economy might also project itself into military spending, arms modernization, and bigger professionalization of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The military and economy traditionally belong to the “hard power” sphere. Hard power defined by Joseph Jr. Nye is an ability to use a combination of military and economic might – sticks and carrots to make others do what you want them to do.1 Accumulation of PRC's hard power was an ongoing process that continues to present day and with Xi Jinping taking power in 2013 and changing the national narrative from:
“Hide your capacities, bide your time” defined by Deng Xiaoping to: “Striving for Achievement”
projection of Chinese hard power is more visible in recent years in areas like the South China Sea.
1 NYE, Joseph. Propaganda Isn't the Way: Soft Power. [online]. International Herald Tribune, 2003. Retrieved from:
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/10/opinion/IHT-soft-power-propaganda-isnt-the-way.html. [visited: 18.2.2020].
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From the early 2000s, PRC started to work on building up its soft power as well. Nye defines soft power as the opposite of hard power. Where hard power is to make others do what you want, soft power is to make others want to do what you want as well. According to him, this is done by the state capturing so-called soft power resources that come from the state’s values, organizations, policies that promote these values, and culture which arises from free civil society.2 Therefore the government can either reinforce or jeopardize one's soft power by arrogant, hypocritical behavior in the international community.3 In the case of PRC, activities like support for Confucius institutes from 2004, the organization of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, contribution to peacekeeping initiatives under the United Nations (UN) framework, promoting its economic development, and others were seen as an attempt to utilize soft power. These and similar activities belong to the regular public diplomacy sphere serving as a promotion of one’s country.
As was discussed before, the Czech Chinese relations since the 90s were not the warmest due to the Vaclav Havel and general orientation of the Czech foreign policy towards the emphasis on human rights. But that started to change during the late 2010s, and the year 2013 marks an official change in the Czech Chinese relations. That year Milos Zeman was elected as a president of the Czech Republic and in PRC Xi Jinping took power as a General Party Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. When Xi announced his One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR), later renamed to Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Milos Zeman became a public supporter of warming Chinese Czech relations and campaigned for more economic cooperation. Zeman and his turn towards the PRC were criticized by many experts as there was no consideration of the specifics of the Chinese regime and viewed it as naïve to think that somehow this incredible wealth will just start to flow to the Czech Republic. Nonetheless, huge investments by Chinese enterprises were promised as well as the opening of the Chinese market to Czech companies. Direct flight connections between Prague and major Chinese cities were established to promote tourism and additional scholarships were offered to Czech students to study the Chinese language in China.
But in 2016 it started to be obvious that this very open, warm, and even naïve approach to PRC from the Czech side would not payout. Chinese state-own enterprise (SOE) CEFC China Energy
2 NYE, Joseph. Soft Power the Means to Success in World Politics/ [online]. New York: Public Affairs, 2004.
Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/28699788/Soft_Power_the_Means_to_Success_in_World_Politics_-_Joseph_S._Nye_Jr. ISBN 13-978-1-58648-306-7. [visited: 20.2.2020]. Page 7.
3 Ibid, Page 14.
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Company Limited (CEFC) which was labeled as a flagship for Chinese investments in the Czech Republic, and in broader sphere CEFC also was part of BRI, had come to attention as its CEO Ye Jianming was arrested in China for corruption and its vice-chairman Patrick Ho was arrested in New York in 2017 for bribing the president of Chad on behalf of CEFC. The lack of promised investments was apparent more and more every year and the promised opening of the Chinese market to the Czech companies did not happen as well. Other issues that came to light such as Chinese influence in media, politics, and academia together with the increasing warnings from the security community against the Chinese activities brought attention to Chinese presence in the Czech Republic.
Even though problems of the promised Chinese investments and Chinese influence activities are known, any significant change did not occur as the approach towards the PRC remains in many ways open and naïve as in 2013. Therefore, this thesis aims to explore possible directions that the Czech Republic can take and what tools it can employ to be able to continue its relationship with PRC on a more balanced base and protect itself from the Chinese sharp power at the same time without losing its openness.
1.2 Research Motivation and Purpose
The motivation of this thesis is that because the so-called restart of the Czech Chinese relations initiated in 2013 was done in a very open way from the side of the Czech Republic without any consideration of the nature of the Chinese Communist Party, its tactics and its goals. The Czech side responsible for the restart was driven solely by economic interests. This was criticized at the beginning by many experts since this open approach towards the PRC might be dangerous and it would be naïve to think that PRC would not want anything back for all that money it intended to invest in the Czech Republic. But it was dismissed as the promise of economic growth and wealth had bigger importance.
When it became apparent that the Chinese capital would not be flowing to the Czech Republic as promised, other issues concerning the Czech Chinese interaction came to light as well. Experts, and later on the mainstream media, started to point out that the Chinese activities in the Czech Republic are not regular public diplomacy or just plain economic investments. This phenomenon is connected with Christopher Walker who noted in his research that some of these activities conducted by the authoritarian regimes of the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of
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China that at first glance appear as they come from grassroots associations or as a form of soft power and parts of public diplomacy are in fact using local actors for conducting government propaganda. This and other tactics Walker labels as “Sharp power” as the purpose is not to win the hearts and minds as it is the goal of soft power but more to manipulate others, by poisoning the information stream. Sharp power essentially works like a knife to cut, into society and amplify already-existing division, penetrating political and social environment in the target country using manipulation and co-optation while masking it for standard public diplomacy strategy and soft power techniques.4 Similar tactics employ not only authoritarian regimes of Russia and PRC but other authoritarian countries do too as well as liberal democracies all around the world differing in the scope, funds, and targets. Practices like these do not belong only to the state actors but private international corporations do the same to secure their businesses. In the case of the Czech Republic domestic and international actors, private and state actors, liberal and authoritarian actors all have their interests which might differ in the sphere of influence scope and goals, but the term Sharp power only refers to the authoritarian regimes of PRC and Russia and this thesis is concerned only with the Chinese one in the Czech Republic.
The naivety connected with the restart of the Czech Chinese relations and followed the execution of the Sharp power in the Czech Republic brings this thesis to the Paradox of Tolerance defined by Karl Popper. It states that “if we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.”5 As was mentioned prior, the restart of the Czech Chinese relations in 2013 was established in a very open even naïve way in other words in a very tolerant way towards the PRC and its regime. In time as the interaction with the PRC continued the issues emerged along with corrosive effects in the Czech Republic as well. With the gained influence of the PRC in the Czech Republic, the environment became distorted and
4 WALKER Ch., LUDWIG J., CARDENAL J. P., KUCHARCZYK J., MASEZNIKOV G., PLESCHOVA G. Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence: New Forum Report. [online]. National Endowment for Democracy, 2017.
Retrieved from: https://www.ned.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Sharp-Power-Rising-Authoritarian-Influence-Full-Report.pdf. [visited: 20.2.2020]. Page 6.
5 POPPER, Karl. The Open Society and Its Enemies. [online]. Routledge & Kegan Paul Plc, 1966. Retrieved from:
https://monoskop.org/images/5/5f/Popper_Karl_The_Open_Society_and_Its_Enemies_Vols_1-2_5th_ed.pdf. ISBN 0-691-01968-1. [visited: 20.2.2020]. Page 543.
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corroded by the Chinese sharp power activities, in other words the tolerant would be destroyed by the intolerant.
Therefore, the purpose of this research is to first look at the warming up the Chinese–Czech Relations and then their later development. At the same time look at Chinese activities in the Czech Republic in various spheres ranging from economy, politics, media to academia, therefore the ones corresponding with the targets of the sharp power. Explore how the specific spheres were impacted by the Chinese sharp power and therefore examine the way how the Czech Republic can defend itself against the Chinese sharp power. To do that, using the paradox of tolerance, the way is to stop tolerating the Chinese, in other words, by redefining the relations by drawing new lines in the Czech Chinese relations. But it cannot be done at the expense of our own liberal values of openness because if the Czech Republic ought to limit Chinese webpages the same way Czech webpages are limited in the PRC, it would automatically become a closed society like the PRC.
The People's Republic of China is a major country that cannot be omitted from the international community. That is why the cooperation between the PRC and the Czech Republic should continue as both countries no matter the size has many things they can offer to each other in terms of culture, trade, and science. But as the new information concerning Chinese influence in Czech politics, business and academia are coming out almost every month, not just from a journalist but the intelligence agencies as well, the need for new rules for engaging with PRC is becoming more and more apparent but it cannot be done on expense of liberal values.
1.3 Research Question
This research thesis is looking at the Czech Chinese relations which were opened in a very naïve (tolerant) way because the motivation was driven by economic interests. Because of that, the PRC was able to exercise a certain form of Sharp power in the Czech Republic which led to a corrosive effect in the spheres that sharp power aims at such as academia, media, etc. Therefore, this work argues that this naïve way (tolerant way) has to be stopped as the paradox of tolerance says, and Czech Chinese interaction has to be redefined accordingly. This means new lines have to be drawn especially in those areas where China is exercising the Sharp power without becoming intolerant by bluntly cutting off any relationship with the PRC. For those reasons, this thesis aims to answer two research questions.
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The first and main research question is concerning the open approach of the Czech Republic towards the PRC and its followed execution of the sharp power and its impact on the Czech Republic: Does the Chinese exercise of Sharp power in the Czech Republic lead to the distortion of the democracy?
To find possible ways for the Czech Republic how to defend against the Chinese sharp power, this thesis operates with the second research question: What tools can the Czech Republic employ to combat Chinese influence activities in the Czech Republic while maintaining its openness in terms of the values of an open society?
1.4 Research Method
To answer the two research questions with which this thesis operates it uses an interpretive approach. It is very similar to qualitative research as this thesis is not working with any numerological data but is relying on word-based data mainly gained from the interviews. This approach puts the meaning-making actions of individual actors 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. In other words, this method starts with data and tries to derive a theory about the phenomenon of interest from the observed data which is opposite to the positivist method, where the researcher starts with a theory and tests theoretical postulates using empirical data. This research method is suitable for this research as this thesis is looking at the action of the actors in the Czech Chinese relations. The topic of international relations and political sphere and others are highly contextual rather than isolationist therefore interpretive analysis is much more suitable. It is suitable especially for the main research question as in social science changes in the society or this case of democracy cannot be quantified very well or almost at all.6 Therefore, by looking at the main event in the Czech Chinese relations in seven years and their outcomes the thesis will interpret their importance for the democracy in terms of qualitative changes or possible changes if the trends would be ongoing in the future. That will provide for the need to answer the second research question and come up with possible recommendations on how to mitigate the Chinese sharp power in the Czech Republic.
6 PEZL, Bill. Research Methods for Social Sciences: Chapter 12 Interpretive Research. [online]. Herkimer College, 2020. Retrieved from: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-research-methods/chapter/chapter-12-interpretive-research/. [visited: 15.5.2020].
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The research was conducted through analysis of primary and secondary literature together with the in-depth and written interviews. The literature review firstly focuses on the concept of power.
Using the work of Joseph Nye concerning hard and soft power helps to layout the ground foundation to a better understanding of sharp power coined by Christopher Walker as sharp power employs tactics of hard power, partially posing as soft power.
Then the literature review is looking at the Paradox of Tolerance coined by 20th century philosopher Karl Popper. This paradox states that unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance because if the unlimited tolerance is extended to those who are intolerant they will eventually destroy the tolerant one and tolerance with them. This paradox serves as a catalyst for a debate where the lines of tolerance should be drawn but it poses the threat that in drawing lines the tolerant will become intolerant. Therefore, this part is looking at the term tolerance and open society as well. Using works of Mill, Locke, Jefferson, and others who already toyed with this dilemma, just under different names serve to this thesis as a guideline to navigate the pen in drawing the line. Because the first research question aims to provide data on whether the Chinese sharp power distorts democracy in the Czech Republic the literature review is also looking at the definition of democracy. This thesis is using the definition of democracy proposed by Kimber.
To gain a deep understanding of the Czech Chinese relations and Chinese influence activities in the country, the third chapter of this work will look at Chinese activities in the Czech Republic. It will be done by a compilation method of primary and secondary literature to provide a chronological development of Chinese-Czech relations from its restart in 2013 till the present day.
The year 2013 was chosen as the time when Milos Zeman took the presidential office in the Czech Republic and announced the restart and also at the similar time Xi Jinping took power in the PRC and he directed the country more outward with his Belt and Road Initiative to which the Czech Republic under the president Zeman joined. This section is using media articles as relations develop until the beginning of 2020. This section will heavily rely on news articles. As there is more information available in Czech language media this thesis will try to mitigate its usage by using English language sources if available. Using this method this chapter will illustrate the development of Chinese-Czech interaction and on specific events demonstrates the presence and specifics of Chinese influence activates in the country. Afterward, this thesis offers a timeline of
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all important milestones in the Czech Chinese relations starting in 2004 until 2020. This timeline
all important milestones in the Czech Chinese relations starting in 2004 until 2020. This timeline