Deutsche Welle Chinese recently reported that the friendly relationship between the City of Prague and the City of Beijing is changing. Early this year Prague’s Mayor, Zdenek Hrib, expressed his intent to remove the content in the agreement between the two cities that acknowledges Taiwan being a part of China. The new agreement is still under negotiation. However, Mayer Hrib’s opinion angered Beijing. In June, Beijing cancelled the Czech Philharmonic’s concert in Beijing despite the fact that they had signed a contract. Hrib used this as an example to describe Beijing as an unreliable business partner. Hrib’s predecessor had signed the relationship agreement, partly in the interest of getting a panda. In explaining its position, Prague expressed that human rights are more valuable than the right to have a panda in the zoo. Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek is planning to step in.
Source: DW Chinese, July 19, 2019
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