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Taiwan – Czech Republic Relations 2000 – 2012

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Taiwan – Czech Republic Relations 2000 – 2012 MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Department of International Relations and European studies Taiwan – Czech Republic relations 2000 – 2012 Bachelor‟s thesis Ondřej Macháček Supervisor: Mgr. Jan Polišenský UČO: 378515 Field of study: International Relations Matriculation year: 2010 Brno, 2013 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material which has been accepted or submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma. I also declare that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis. Brno, April 28th 2013 ............................................ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Upon finishing this thesis I feel greatly indebted to a number of individuals who have proved to have become an essential part of my work for without their help such a paper could have only hardly reach such a level of quality. Firstly, I am most grateful to my supervisor Mgr. Jan Polišenský, currently a doctoral candidate at Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic. His guidance, constructive remarks and immaculate willingness to simultaneous help at any point of my work greatly enhanced its quality. Secondly, I wish to express great appreciation to everyone with whom I had the chance to discuss this issue. A number of interviews with individuals most concerned helped remarkably to understand this matter. Thirdly, a wholehearted gratitude belongs to Roy and Mina Moffat, my native English speaking friends. Their devotion to help turned a paper of haphazardly used information into a paper that readers will enjoy reading in a well structured and clear manner. Last but not least, long-lasting and unceasing support of my surroundings, especially my family, was but the most important thing that have led and allowed me to finish this paper. Content 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 6 1.1. Methodology ................................................................................................................ 7 2. Political background ......................................................................................................... 10 2.1. Taiwan ....................................................................................................................... 10 2.2. Czech Republic .......................................................................................................... 12 3. Relationship 2000 – 2012 ................................................................................................. 15 3.1. Historical background ................................................................................................ 15 3.2. Political development ................................................................................................ 18 3.2.1. Theoretical approaches ....................................................................................... 18 3.2.2. Relations prior 2004 ........................................................................................... 20 3.2.3. Party politics and international support of Taiwan ............................................ 22 3.2.4. Struggle for Schengen Visa ................................................................................ 25 3.2.5. Human rights as a shared value? ........................................................................ 27 3.2.6. Double-taxation issue ......................................................................................... 29 3.2.7. Future prospects ................................................................................................. 30 3.3. Economic development ............................................................................................. 31 3.3.1. Mutual trade ....................................................................................................... 31 3.3.2. Foreign Direct Investment .................................................................................. 34 3.4. Organization and legal issues .................................................................................... 36 4. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 40 5. List of abbreviations and acronyms .................................................................................. 42 6. Sources .............................................................................................................................. 43 1. Introduction This bachelor‟s thesis hopes to provide a thorough analysis of contemporary Taiwan – Czech Republic relations. It will concisely tackle the position of both Czech Republic and Taiwan and their approach to East Asia and Europe respectively. Author will try to analyse the relations since the establishment of Czech Republic. The major focus of this work, however, will be set on the development of this relation in the 21st century beginning with Chen Shuibian‟s presidency. After a very concise introductory and methodological part, the second chapter is devoted to the historical background in terms of countries position in the world system, their foreign policies and approach to East Asia and EU respectively. Before focusing on the very development of such a relation in the new millennium, brief description of mutual relations up to the year 2000 was deemed necessary. As a result of the active development, some authors claim that the initial phase of such phenomena in early 90‟s deserves most attention.1 This thesis will, however, tackle the development in the given time frame, focusing on the possible change in politics with change of presidencies of both sides. Despite evidently decreasing importance in political terms characterized by a number of blind spots in the first of half of the new decade, considerable attention was paid to economic development. In the second half of the decade, nevertheless, a number of issues such as Taiwan‟s struggle for Schengen visa, the problematic of double taxation agreement deserve to be further elaborated on. This paper is therefore likely to be the first academic literature paying such attention to this issue. As other important scholars deem economic development of this relation to be the most prominent aspect, a special chapter was devoted to this part. Following chapter will discuss legal and organizational issues that will shed light on the background of this relationship. Whereas in these fields this thesis relies heavily on a number of other papers, it should be noted, that since the last Fürst‟s book on Czech Republic – China relations (2010), this paper provides readers with most thorough up-to-date analysis of such relations, reflecting the latest development, that has not yet enjoyed academic attention. 1 Interview with R. Fürst, Institute of International Relations, Prague, Czech Republic, 25. 3. 2013. 6 1.1. Methodology The reason why author decided to carry out a research dealing this topic is that considerably little attention has been paid to it so far. No matter how deeply aware the author is about the fact that this topic is not considered mainstream and draws only little attention rather than public masses, it is still deemed that it deserves further study. Taking into consideration the already very limited number of Czech sinologists on one side or similar problems faced by the other side, it goes without saying that academic and political attention to such distant counterpart has come at the cost of more pressing issues than analysis of such relations. Although we may find chapters on this issue in certain publications, most of the scholars that had previously took a keen interest in such an issue seem to have slightly changed their field of interest.2 Further setbacks stem from the academia though. If we take into account there are currently only three universities in Czech Republic that offer majors in Chinese studies, and only one that actually provide for lessons of Czech language on the other side, we may see yet another reasons for comparable insignificance of such an issue. Yet another constraint may be the actual sensitivity of such a topic. It should be noted that any kind of dealings with such an issue might be of rather disturbing character for any of these sides mentioned. There also seems to be slight unwillingness to take position on such an issue as it might further jeopardize connections with the most prominent third side that is PRC. Some politicians suggest that any kind of engagement with “One China Policy” plus something else is comparable to walking on very thin ice.3 For this very reason, we may find only few officials that are willing to openly comment on such an issue. To provide readers with an up-to-date work, author opted for a multidimensional approach that hopes to reflect not only academic literature, but at the same time primary sources as well as a number of interviews given by academics and officials most concerned and involved. Author therefore considers this work to be qualitative one-case study of 2000- 2 R. Fürst, I. Bakešová seem to have lost the track of their previous interest, Tubilewicz‟s since his last book was published in 2007 also did not carry out any further research. 3 Interview with R. Vysloužil, Chamber of Deputies member, Prague, 4. 3. 2013.
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