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Traveling abroad broadens one's horizons by exposing the traveler to new cultures, languages, and perspectives on the world. A successful international trip requires preparation – general preparation focusing on essential documents, currency, and local customs to ensure a smooth and enriching experience, and specific preparation focusing on the purpose of the trip, which is mostly tourism, sometimes study, and nowadays, in the age of ideological conflicts and the idealization of knowledge, exceptionally professional.

For the author of this article, preparing for a trip is more of a routine. In this case, it involved active participation in an international forum on the topic of global human rights governance, including moderating a section and delivering a more extensive presentation on the topic: What can history teach us? And subsequently, teaching lessons to MA and PhD students at SWUPL – Southwest University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing.

SWUPL – Southwest University of Political Science and Law

The university was founded in 1950. It is one of the earliest higher education institutions specializing in political science and law. It belongs to the first group of key universities since the beginning of China's reforms and opening up to the world. Currently, the university has the largest number of law students in China. It is therefore not surprising that a large number of graduates have become pillars and leading figures in the legal field and other professions.

In 2018, the SWUPL Master of Laws program was rated as an A-level program by the Chinese professional assessment of the Ministry of Education (MOE), along with Tsinghua University, Wuhan University, and Jilin University. Students studying in Chinese must have a valid HSK4 certificate or equivalent language proficiency certificate. Students studying in English must submit a certificate of English proficiency for non-native speakers.

SWUPL is a key university jointly managed by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and the Chongqing municipal government. Administratively, it is a municipal-level institution directly under the central government of the People's Republic of China. The city has more than 32 million inhabitants on a total administrative area of approximately 82,400 square kilometers, roughly the size of Austria. The city is known as a vast 3D cyberpunk megacity. Its extremely mountainous terrain requires impressive engineering projects, with elevated highways winding between skyscrapers, a subway running directly between residential buildings, cliff elevators, and bridges. The city is world-renowned as the birthplace of authentic Sichuan hotpot. For those who wish to experience a more relaxed cultural pace in tea houses and see giant pandas, I recommend visiting Chengdu, which is only 1.5 hours away by high-speed train.

SWUPL has strong international exchange programs with more than 90 partner universities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, and other countries. The university has established institutions such as the Human Rights Research Institution, the China-ASEAN Law Research Center, and other well-known institutions. In total, the university has approximately 25,000 students in 14 schools and faculties, including the School of Civil and Commercial Law, the School of Law, the School of Administrative and International Law, the School of Criminal Investigation, the School of Foreign Languages, the School of Journalism and Communication, and, of course, the Department of Marxism, the Department of Law of Artificial Intelligence, and the Department of International Education.

International Forum

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The forum took place in Beijing on June 11th and 12th, 2026. The hosts were the Information Office of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, and the organizers were the China Society for Human Rights Studies, the China Foundation for Human Rights Development, and the CGTN think tank. More than 400 participants from approximately 30 countries around the world and all major international organizations participated in the forum, both actively and passively.

As expected, the EU, and especially its smaller member states, such as the Czech Republic, missed a unique opportunity to find answers to the main political and philosophical challenges in relations with China. These challenges are focused on navigating the sharp asymmetry of power and resolving the fundamental tensions between so-called "European values" – such as post-war human rights and a rules-based order, both of which are fading into oblivion in the era of anthropological warfare and transactional international relations – and the Chinese state-capitalist social model.

I would like to remind you that Chinese diplomacy maintains a careful balance with two major European countries: Germany and the United Kingdom. Beijing has offered these countries strategic partnerships and economic incentives, but at the same time, it has set firm red lines on issues of security and acceptable public discourse. It was in early November 2025 that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held telephone conversations with his German and British counterparts after periods of high tension: in Berlin, due to disputes over export controls and de-risking policies, and in London, due to the collapse of Chinese investigations into espionage and a sharp warning from MI5. These episodes highlighted a new reality in relations between China and Europe. The same applies to the Czech Republic, which is unable to wake up and change its policies.

The Czech Academy of Sciences prohibits and Czech universities do not recommend cooperation with China, thereby losing talents who go abroad to Europe or the United States. Small and medium-sized enterprises have no chance of establishing themselves independently in China, either from a capital perspective or due to the nature of the entrepreneurs. BSI is looking for Schrödinger's cat everywhere, in analogy to the famous thought experiment by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935, and demonstrating the absurdity of a literal understanding of its role in society and in relation to the government. The cat in the box is theoretically both alive and dead.

Just like the Chinese intelligence officer in custody awaiting trial, and the judge who rejected the prosecutor's evidence, because he probably knows that the intelligence officer, with common sense, cannot be an intelligence officer. A Czech "fighter" with a combative character, unbalanced emotional intelligence, and a tendency to drink, working in Beijing, did not have common sense in the right place. He was arrested the day before my arrival in Beijing, and he was put in jail for a week to quietly think about what he would do in his homeland after being deported, under conditions that he would certainly not like.

I expect the usual cries about human rights from the Černín Palace under new leadership, and from various NGOs. I assume that Strak(ovk)a will remain silent as a tomb, because it is not capable of understanding the main, unmistakable message from Beijing: continue trading with China, resist excessive alignment with the Washington agenda of containment, and respect China's fundamental interests, which are Taiwan and national security.

The EU's foreign policy, and therefore that of the Czech Republic, struggles to reconcile its economic ties with China with growing political and artificially created security concerns at home. The result is a tense relationship that can be described as strategic cooperation without timeless governance, increasingly resembling a managed confrontation and a deliberately cultivated distrust.

The Period of the Warring States

This is a key era in ancient Chinese history. After the collapse of the centralized power of the Zhou dynasty, the fragmented territory consolidated into seven competing powers: Qin, Chu, Qi, Han, Wei, Yen, and Zhao. This era of brutal conflicts ended in 221 BC when the state of Qin unified the country and created the first Chinese empire. Despite being a period of constant warfare, it brought about a tremendous advancement in technology, military science, and philosophy.

Modern political scientists, including those of Czech origin, should know that of the many schools founded during this period and the subsequent Period of the Warring States, four were the most influential: Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, and Legalism. These influential intellectual movements arose in part as a reaction to the changing political landscape and had a profound impact on Chinese culture. This is still the case today, even if it is not always acknowledged.

For example, Confucianism does not explicitly prohibit or criminalize LGBT identities, but it emphasizes traditional interpretations of heteronormative family structures and the obligation to bear biological offspring. As a result, same-sex orientation is tolerated, although traditional Confucianism has historically denied institutional or marital recognition to LGBT relationships. Even here, the so-called "golden rule" of Confucianism applies: do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you. It is important to remember that Confucianism is a term coined by Western scholars, and, according to the author's knowledge, there is no equivalent in any Chinese dialect.

Key Challenges: Structural, External, and Internal

The structural challenge for the West and the Atlantic civilization lies in the competition between major powers, particularly with the United States, in the strategic arena of advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and semiconductor manufacturing, which is driving global supply chain decoupling and export controls. In this context, the Taiwan Strait and the island of Taiwan are located. This represents a potential for ongoing tension, an opportunity for military escalation, and an influence that extends to regional allies of the United States.

This structural challenge has taken on global significance and influence: Beijing is seeking to weaken American hegemony by supporting alternative international frameworks such as BRICS and by building partnerships in the Global South, including the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The initiative represents a crucial tool for expanding geopolitical influence and securing foreign dual-use infrastructure, such as ports in Sri Lanka and Djibouti, while simultaneously exposing China to criticism and accusations from the West of a debt trap, not to mention the consequences of colonialism under its leadership.

External challenges include regional tensions and maritime disputes in the South China Sea and the East China Sea. China's extensive territorial claims overlap with the exclusive economic zones of countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, and Japan. This often leads to local maritime and air standoffs. In this context, there is also the long-standing territorial dispute in the Himalayas and the competition for influence in South Asia, which occasionally leads to deadly military clashes. China, therefore, uses its dominant position in global manufacturing and in critical minerals and rare earths to retaliate against countries that attempt to weaken its development or impose sanctions on China.

A key challenge and vulnerability lies in demographics. This is a challenge that Western societies are trying to address through migration, including the Czech Republic. China, like many other countries, faces a rapidly aging population and a shrinking workforce. This can lead to a slowdown in long-term economic growth, which is a tool for poverty reduction, and increased domestic economic pressure, leading to youth unemployment, including graduates from Western universities, debt for local governments, and growth based on the consumption of advanced technologies and debt.

In the context of the above, there is China's unlimited partnership with Russia. This complicates China's diplomatic position in the West, whose strategic goal is to defeat Russia, based on the illusion of knowledge and understanding stemming from a lack of historical awareness and an understanding of current facts.

For those interested in more detailed information, I offer the opportunity to learn about Western analyses of geopolitical dynamics from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), or reports on economic and security competition from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). At the same time, I emphasize that the key geopolitical challenges facing China stem from its rapid transformation into a global superpower, which is increasingly reshaping the post-war international order, a process of destruction led by President Trump and his puppet masters.

For small, and therefore U.S.-dependent, European countries, the main political and philosophical challenges in relations with China are based on navigating a sharp asymmetry of power and resolving the tensions between human rights and a rules-based order, both of which are in a coma and in the process of dying, and the Chinese state-capitalist social model.

The relationship with China, theoretically and practically, due to the inability to conduct dialogue and communication with the Chinese, involves an asymmetry of power. Deep trade and investment ties create dependencies that make small, and systemically corrupt, states uniquely vulnerable to Chinese economic pressure, export controls, or the use of unreliable entity lists. From a philosophical perspective, this presents a dilemma that undermines the self-determination of small nations. Their fear of economic retaliation and purely Western thinking limit their ability to pursue an independent foreign policy.

Universal values vs. cultural relativism

European foreign policy is historically rooted in universalist philosophies of human rights, an unattainable democracy, and a dying economic system based on debt. In contrast, China promotes a state-oriented philosophy that prioritizes regime security, economic development, and non-interference in political liberalization. The dilemma is that small European countries often face the normative challenge of maintaining their conditional sovereignty and democratic identity.

Small European states, anchored in the broader geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China, must decide how to position themselves. Philosophically, this presents a dilemma that challenges the European narrative of strategic autonomy and forces small states to choose between aligning with the leaky transatlantic security umbrella of NATO and seeking a pragmatic, independent reset with China. How the vulnerabilities of small countries affect specific countries is indicated by localized analyses from the Center for European Security (CEIAS). The broader systemic rivalry is described by the Brookings Institution.

China, the UN, and ocean ecology

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On Wednesday, China called for strengthened multilateral cooperation and a more equitable global system for ocean governance during a UN meeting in New York on the law of the sea. The ocean is a common home for humanity and an important arena for global governance, said Sun Lei, Deputy Permanent Representative of China to the UN, in a general statement at the 36th session of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The meeting, which took place from Monday to Friday, reviewed issues related to the implementation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, the main international legal framework governing maritime rights, resource utilization, and ocean affairs.

This year's meeting follows the entry into force on January 17 of the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction. The agreement focuses on the protection and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. This is a topic that was a major focus of last year's international conference in Shanghai and Shandong, a coastal province in eastern China. The province has an area of 157,100 square kilometers and a population of nearly 100 million people. It is one of the most populous and economically developed provinces.

The author of this article actively participated in the aforementioned international conference, giving a presentation in which he highlighted the issues of ocean ecology from the perspective of the teachings of the academic Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, who briefly taught in Prague. This Soviet, Russian, and Ukrainian mineralogist and geochemist, educator, and organizer, one of the most important natural scientists of his time, refused an offer of asylum in Czechoslovakia during a difficult period of repression. Vernadsky's scientific work connects the natural sciences with philosophy, forming the basis of the theory of the biosphere and the noosphere, which is one of the concepts of cosmic evolution. I wrote an article about the conference after returning from China, and, if I'm not mistaken, the report was published on the website of the Institute of the Czech Left (ICL).

At the UN session, Sun stated that, against the backdrop of a changing international situation, China is ready to cooperate with all parties to uphold the authority of the UN and revitalize and strengthen the UN. China consistently supports the peaceful resolution of maritime disputes through means voluntarily chosen by the parties concerned, especially through negotiations and consultations, Sun said.

Sun also addressed the South China Sea and responded to comments from some hostile countries that mentioned the arbitration case in the South China Sea during the discussions. He said that the meeting was not the appropriate venue for discussing the issue of the South China Sea. The so-called arbitration case in the South China Sea violated the principle of state consent, he said, adding that China neither accepts nor recognizes the decision. The situation in the South China Sea is generally stable, Sun said, and urged relevant countries to stop exaggerating this issue in multilateral forums and return to resolving disputes through bilateral consultations. Bilateral consultations are what the government of Prime Minister Babiš should also apply.

I would like to remind you that China has joined the Agreement on Port State Measures, has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal fishing, has implemented voluntary moratoria in the open sea, and has constructively participated in the establishment and operation of marine protected areas in the open sea. I would also like to mention China's support for developing countries in building maritime capacity. China has provided marine disaster prevention and warning services to more than 130 countries and has trained more than 100,000 marine professionals for more than 50 developing countries.

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From this, it follows that China is determined to practice multilateralism and defend international fairness and justice, uphold the international order based on international law, and reject unilateralism and hegemonic actions. Implementing this requires excluding unauthorized development of international seabed resources and, of course, space resources.

The Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction concerns the overall interests of the international community, requires a secretariat that corresponds to the importance and future development of the agreement, and represents another opportunity for cooperation between the Czech Republic and China. China has proposed Xiamen, in the eastern Chinese province of Fujian, as the host of the secretariat. This is an ideal location due to its maritime tradition, developed economy, and extensive maritime cooperation.

These were times when the cooperation between Czechoslovakia and China in the 1950s laid the foundation for the Czechoslovak merchant fleet and helped China circumvent international embargoes. The first ocean-going ships, Julius Fučík and Ostrava, operated under a joint flag, before the fleet gradually became independent. I mention this because China has a long historical memory, but is also able to forgive, and in 1961, only two combined passenger and cargo ships operated between the Chinese ports of Tsingtao in the north in the Yellow Sea and Tsamkong in the south in the South China Sea.

China has designated 150,000 square kilometers of marine ecological protection with red lines and has established 353 marine ecologically protected areas, which represents a number of opportunities for the Czech Republic. However, this requires a willingness to overcome fear and manage the treacherousness of politicians.

On the day of his return to Prague, the Dragon Boat Festival began in China on June 19th. The Czech Prague Dragon Boat Festival is the oldest race of its kind in the Czech Republic. Each year, sports, amateur, and corporate teams participate in the event, using both standard and smaller boats. This year marks the 29th edition of the race.

Jan Campbell