EU Presidency Czech Republic + Zero-Covid as a long-term recipe

With a half-sentence, Beijing’s top party secretary Cai Qi had sparked a minor mass panic in China. In an article in the state newspaper Beijing Ribao, the 66-year-old declared that “in the next five years, Beijing will resolutely, unremittingly, do a good job in normalizing pandemic prevention controls”. In plain language, that would mean five more years of lockdowns, mass testing, and closed borders. The many outraged comments on social media channels such as Weibo show that the population no longer simply supports the whole thing – censors were hardly able to keep up with deleting posts, as Fabian Kretschmer reports from Beijing. Even though Cai Qi’s comment has since been changed, the question remains the elephant in the room: Does China really want to isolate itself and its citizens from the rest of the world in the long term with its zero-Covid policy?

In a few days, the Czech Republic will take over the EU presidency from France. Amelie Richter analyzes what this could mean for EU-China policy. Because although the Czech Republic, unlike France, is part of Beijing’s “16+1” format, the fronts are anything but clear. Under the chairmanship of Prague, which is sympathetic to Kyiv, the EU will keep a close eye on the relationship between Beijing and Moscow in particular. Other potentially controversial issues include Taiwan, Lithuania and closer ties with Indo-Pacific neighbors such as Australia, Korea and India.

Meanwhile, the G7 countries have taken a clear stance against China. The final document of the G7 summit in Elmau reads like a full-frontal swipe against China. An entire page is devoted to old and new problem areas, from China’s unclear stance in the Ukraine war to human rights violations in Xinjiang and unfair trade practices. No wonder Chinese diplomats are currently criticizing the summit on all channels and pointing to the BRICS alliance as an alternative power alliance.

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Fabian Peltsch