Shanghai’s cancellation of its partnership with Prague reveals how normally apolitical relations are increasingly tainted by identity politics.

The Diplomat
Date: February 25, 2020
By: Matej Šimalčík and Adam Kalivoda

When the Prague City Council approved a sister city agreement with Taiwan in January 2020, Shanghai responded by canceling its own partnership with Prague, which was established back in 2017. The cancellation came after a similar agreement with Beijing fell through a few months earlier over the “One China” issue.

In 2016, a month before a state visit to the Czech Republic by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, then-mayor of Prague Adriana Krnáčová approved a sister-city agreement with Beijing. This agreement in itself wouldn’t prove to be an issue until the city’s administration changed and a new mayor, Zdeněk Hřib, decided to review the agreement’s extensive “One China” policy clause. The clause holds that: “The City of Prague confirms its continuous commitment to the One China Policy of the Government of the Czech Republic, and acknowledges that Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory.”

After the new city council of Prague approached Beijing about removing this clause (supposedly multiple times, despite the fact that it was reportedly Krnáčová’s administration and not Beijing who proposed the clause in the first place) and received no satisfactory answers, it pushed for the whole relationship to be rejected. The city council’s reasoning was that by including the “One China” clause, the deal became political, which is not standard practice for sister-city agreements. Even though the decision to repeal the agreement passed the city council on October 7, 2019, Prague wasn’t able to implement it, as Beijing prematurely ended this agreement itself on October 9. As a result, Prague lost the last remaining hope of receiving a panda for the Prague Zoo — one of the more symbolic results of the two cities’ fallout.

However, Prague was quick to find a replacement for the panda promised by Beijing. In early December 2019, Prague formalized its long functioning relationship with Taipei into an official sister-city relationship. This was sealed on January 13, 2020, during a visit by Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je to Prague. As a symbol of the deal, Taiwan promised to gift several pangolins to the Prague Zoo.    [FULL  STORY]