Alžběta Bajerová’s scientific contributions

For two decades after 1989, the Czech Republic has been one of the most energetic campaigners of human rights internationally and in particular concerning China. Political reshuffling in 2012-2013, however, led to a U-turn in foreign policy on China and suddenly the Czech Republic counted as one of the most pro-China countries regionally. A few years later, little economic results, and another domestic political reshuffling, the Czech approach towards China changed again. President and the government, however, maintain different views of what the Czech position towards China should be. The paper puts these dynamic changes in the Czech positioning vis-à-vis China in a framework using the »role theory« perspective, focusing on the policy-making process and discourse. Official statements of the Czech president, prime minister, and minister of foreign affairs are used as the data. It is shown, that the Czech dominant role changed from a Defender of Values (before 2012) to the one of a Faithful Ally of China (during 2013-2017). The situation since 2018 shows an open spectrum-while the government might be trying to build the position of an Internal Developer, the polarized nature of the Czech discussion of China make it difficult to defend.

This policy paper by CEIAS and partners Association for International Affairs (CZ), Central, Eastern European Center of Asian Studies (HU), and Center for International Relations (PL) aims to explore the perception of China among the political elites of the V4 countries (Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, and Poland). This publication attempts to look within the “black box” of the V4 states and provide an overview of how different politicians and political parties perceive China. This will help to shed more light on what factors influence China-related policymaking in the V4 regions, and to help predict future policy change (or stagnation) based on shifts in popular support to individual parties.

The paper summarizes the findings of a large-scale research project of China-related debates at the plenary sessions of the Chamber of Deputiesof the Parliament of the Czech Republic since 1993 and the National Assembly of the Parliament of Hungary from 1990 till the end of 2018. It presents the first and so far only study of the Czech and Hungarian parliamentary discourses on China of this complexity, depth and historical scale.

Média, politici, sociální sítě – ze všech těchto zdrojů se na nás neustále valí dohady o tom, kdo, jak a proč se nás snaží dezinformovat. Co ale často opakovaná spojení fake news, dezinformace a alternativní fakta zahrnují? Jedná se o fenomén posledních let, nebo jsou tu s námi, šikovně skryté, už dlouhá staletí? Jak je možné, že fungují? Kdo a proč je vypouští? A co je hlavní, jak se proti nim můžeme bránit? Tato kniha se šikovnou manipulací v samotném názvu vám pomůže najít odpovědi, nebo alespoň poskytne vodítka k přemýšlení nad každodenní záplavou informací, se kterou je dobré se vypořádat kriticky, ale bez zbytečné paranoie.