On Monday, October 7,the Czech Republic’s capital city of Prague decided to end the sister city relationship that it started with Beijing three years ago. After the current mayor Zdeněk Hřib took office, he requested that the “one China principle” term in the sister city agreement be removed. In response, China has repeatedly cancelled the Czech orchestra’s trips to China.

The city councilor of Hara, Kordová Marvanová, proposed the bill to end the sister city relationship with Beijing. She believed that the agreement of the sister city relationship should not contain a declaration of a political position. In addition, Prague should not support an authoritarian regime in this way.

In March 2016, when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Czech Republic, the two countries signed a number of treaties and agreements, including the establishment of a sister city pairing between Prague and Beijing. The agreement stated that Prague was committed to abiding by the “one China principle” and recognized that “Taiwan is an inalienable territory of China.” It was the mayor of Prague, Adriana Krnáčová, who, at that time, pushed the agreement.

In November 2018, 37-year-old Zdeněk Hřib, a strong supporter of Taiwan, succeeded Krnáčová as the current mayor. Starting in January of this year, Hřib has called on Beijing to remove the “one-China” clause from the sister city agreement. Hřib visited Taiwan in March. Hřib said that Prague only wants to focus on cultural cooperation, not politics. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the riots in Tibet on March 10 of this year, many buildings including the Prague City Hall raised the snow lion flag of the Tibetan government in exile.

In retaliation, over the past six months, China has cancelled the itineraries of the Prague Philharmonic, the Pražák Quartet, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Guarneri Trio Prague in coming to China. The cancellations caused dissatisfaction in the Czech Republic’s political and cultural circles. Last month, the Czech Culture Minister Lubomír Zaorálek summoned Zhang Jianmin, the Chinese ambassador to the Czech Republic, to criticize the Chinese side for canceling the performance of the Czech orchestra as “seriously hurting China’s image.” Zaorálek said that bilateral cooperation can only be based on mutual respect, and China’s behavior is not in line with that. He was frightened that China would stop at nothing in order to force the outside world to accept its political views. Zaorálek added that if the Beijing authorities continued this behavior, the Czech Republic would stop the cultural exchanges with China.

Source: Deutsche Welle, October 7, 2019
https://p.dw.com/p/3QqJS

Xinhua recently reported that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in his speech to Japan’s congress that Japan intends to “start a new era” for the Japan-China relationship and to push for a “new stage” in that relationship. Abe also mentioned that, in addition to improving leadership level visits, Japan plans to expand exchanges on both the economic level and the youth relationship level. In his speech, Abe also discussed critical topics such as an amendment to the constitution, a consumer tax hike, and social security reform. The speech was delivered to the temporary congressional assembly, which ends on December 9. Abe just restructured his cabinet on September 11.

Source: Xinhua, October 4, 2019
http://www.xinhuanet.com/2019-10/04/c_1125072121.htm

On October 8, China’s official Xinhua News Agency published a commentary titled, “Chris Patten, a Synonym for Being Unreasonable, Hypocritical, Paranoid, Cold-blooded, and Shameless.” Chris Patten was the last Governor of Hong Kong from July 19, 1992, until the end of British administration over the territory on June 30, 1997. The Xinhua article is supposedly a response to Patten’s recent comments on the Hong Kong’s mask ban. The following are some excerpts from the Xinhua commentary.

“However, some Western politicians deliberately turned a blind eye and deliberately reversed black and white. For their own ulterior political conspiracy, they ignored the legal principles, social justice, and humanity, and defended the violence and the violent mobs. The “last-generation governor,” who has been unwilling to be neglected, is one of the “best examples.” He recently claimed that the Hong Kong SAR Government’s face mask ban is a “crazy” move and has turned himself into the synonym for being unreasonable, hypocritical, paranoia, cold-blooded, and shameless.”

“Patten has completely ignored the atrocities committed in Hong Kong and completely ignored the serious threats to the safety of the public in Hong Kong. He described the mob as a “people” and called the SAR government’s righteous action of formulating the anti-mask ban to end the violence and protect the people as being “absolutely crazy.” Of course, anyone who has the least bit of rationality can clearly see that what this person said from beginning to the end is baseless and confuses right and wrong. Like those thugs, this person is a cold-blooded madman who is the enemy of the peace of Hong Kong, the well-being of the Hong Kong people, and justice and humanity.”

“Chris Patten publicly beautified the violence, exonerated the violent members, and reserved black and white in order to attack the SAR government and the Chinese government. These unreasonable, shameless, and fallacious comments about Hong Kong only once again show its ugly political character, and once again fully expose the rudeness, barbarism, and vicious motivation of the Western anti-China forces.”

Source: Xinhua, October 8, 2019
http://www.xinhuanet.com/gangao/2019-10/08/c_1125076481.htm