The Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the north.
Capital and largest city: Prague
Population: 10.64 million (2018)
Area: 78,900 thousand square kilometers
Major languages: Czech
Currency: Czech koruna (CZK)
Economy
The Czech Republic is a developed country with a strong industrial base.
The Czech Republic has abundant brown coal, hard coal and uranium ore reserves. The reserves of brown coal and hard coal are about 13.4 billion tons, ranking third in the world and fifth in Europe.
GDP growth rate:
4.5% (2017)
2.4% (3rd quarter of 2018)
Politics:
President: Miloš ZEMAN
Prime Minister: Andrej BABIŠ
The Czech Republic is a member of the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union and other organizations.
The Czech Republic has established diplomatic relations with 195 countries and has joined international organizations such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
China-Czech Relations
China established diplomatic relations with Czechoslovakia on Oct 6, 1949.
On Jan 1, 1993, the Czech Republic became an independent sovereign state. China recognized it and established a diplomatic relation with it at the ambassadorial level. The two sides agreed to continue to use the original date for the establishment of diplomatic relations.
In Oct 2014, the leaders and foreign ministers of China and the Czech Republic exchanged congratulatory messages on the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
In March 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Czech counterpart Miloš Zeman signed a joint statement on lifting the two countries' ties to a strategic partnership during Chinese President Xi’s first state visit to the country. It's the first time that a Chinese president has paid a state visit to the Czech Republic since the two countries established diplomatic ties 67 years ago.
On April 28, 2019, Chinese President Xi met with Czech President Miloš Zeman in Beijing. China is willing to work with the Czech Republic to elevate the bilateral strategic partnership to a new level by grasping the historic opportunity of jointly building the Belt and Road, Xi said. Xi expressed the hope that the Czech Republic can continue to play a constructive role in promoting China-Europe relations. President Zeman said the Czech Republic supports deepening Europe-China relations. The two leaders attended a signing ceremony after their meeting.
Economic cooperation and trade continued to expand. The Czech Republic is China’s second largest trading partner in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2017, the bilateral trade volume between China and Czech was $12.489 billion, up 13.4% year-on-year, of which China's exports were $8.974 billion, up 9.1% year-on-year, and imports were $3.695 billion, up 25.2% year-on-year. From January to October 2018, bilateral trade volume between the two nations was $13.03 billion, up 31% year-on-year, of which China’s exports were $9.32 billion, up 33.7% year-on-year, and imports were $3.71 billion, up 24.8% year-on-year. As of October 2018, China has approved a total of 483 investment projects by Czech companies in China.
Exchanges in culture were deepened. In August 2014, the second China-CEEC leaders' meeting was held at Prague. In 2017, about 500,000 Chinese tourists visited Czech. In November 2018, the first Confucius Institute in Prague was unveiled.