Is the Chinese ambassador connected to the death of the late Czech President of the Senate? 

Editor’s note: As more details surrounding the sudden mysterious death of the former President of the Senate Jaroslav Kubera surface, Kubera’s family are pointing the fingers directly at the Chinese ambassador in Czech, Zhang Jianmin, Czech President  Miloš Zeman and the Chief staff of his office Vratislav Mynář (the key Chinese-Czech relationship broker) for co-opting with Beijing to put pressure political on the Velvet Revolution hero and subsequently causing his death.

“The Czech president and the Chinese Consulate General did not want him to visit Taiwan...and then he died.” A major political scandal was exposed in the Czech Republic on 27 April. The Czech political guru who participated in the Velvet Revolution, the late President of the Senate Jaroslav Kubera originally planned to visit Taiwan in February. All of a sudden, on the eve on his departure, he died of a heart attack on 20 January. Two months after his death, his wife and daughter openly accused the Czech president and Chinese embassy for constantly threatening and pressuring Kubera to cancel his visit to Taiwan before his death. In an interview with the national TV Česká televize, Mrs Kubera stated he was invited to the Chinese New Year banquet organised by the Chinese embassy 3 days before his death. He had an “unpleasant private conversation inside the room” with Chinese representatives. When sorting out the belongings of Kubera, the family found two “threatening letters” in his briefcase, one from the Czech president and one from the Chinese embassy.  They not only tried to deter Kubera’s Taiwan visit, they actually “threatened the safety of his families”.

Kubera died at the age of 72 on 20 January 2020. He began his career in politics in the Velvet Revolution to overthrow the iron curtain rule in Czechoslovakia in 1989 and helped transition his country to democracy. For a long period, Kubera was a core member of the right wing major party ODS. He had been a well known figure in the parliament in the last 20 years. He became the President of the Senate in 2018 – the most senior political-constitutional position only after the president. He was literally the No. 2 official within the Czech political circle.

The Taiwan representative office invited Kubera to the Republic of China’s National Day celebration party in 2019. In the event, Kubera openly promised that he would “pay a visit to Taiwan” after the 2020 Taiwanese presidential election. This statement roused the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Firstly, because Kubera was the second-in-command under the Czech Republic’s constitution. It is a major diplomatic breakthrough for Taiwan. Secondly, the Czech Republic has been the most “pro-China government” within the European Union under President Miloš Zeman. 

President Zeman’s pro-Beijing policies have attracted much controversy and caused divisions in the country. Apart from the fact that there are concerns about China’s totalitarian dictatorship, many Czech politicians have also questioned Chinese businesses that fail to honour their investment promises, while Beijing has been increasingly meddling in Czech’s internal politics. As a result, political figures like Prague mayor Zdeněk Hřib from Czech Pirate Party and Kubera have advocated closer ties and cooperation with Taiwan. 

However, the news of Kubera’s plan to visit Taiwan offended the Chinese government. Since last winter, Beijing has been pressuring the Czech government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Beijing’s spike of the arrow was their own ambassador to the Czech Republic, Zhang Jianmin, and a tough but unpopular figure in Czech Republic.

The 50 year-old Zhang was assigned his post at the Chinese embassy in September 2018. He started off his career as a translator in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Without much diplomatic experience, Zhang only worked as a counsellor at the Chinese embassy in USA for 3 years. He spent most of his career in the translation department of the Ministry. It is Zhang’s first full ambassadorship role. Zhang’s career prospects seemed bright under a close relationship between the Czech government and Xi Jinping’s government. 

With the announcement of Kubera’s “visit to Taiwan in 2020”, Zhang’s career suddenly took a nosedive— especially in the time of a tense China-Taiwan relationship. If Kubera really went on to visit Taiwan, it would be seen as an “unacceptable diplomatic weak point” by Beijing. Therefore, Zhang repeatedly pressured the Czech government, especially president Zeman and threatened Kubera to cancel the trip. “Otherwise, the investment relationship between China and the Czech Republic will be met with revenge!”

Zhang’s diplomatic pressure forced the President’s office to co-opt but the tough Senate House leader Kubera insisted on his plan to visit Taiwan. Multiple confrontations between the two sides intensified after Tsai Ing-Wen was re-elected on 11 January 2020. On 20 January, the 72 year-old Kubera suddenly died from a heart attack as the discourse reached a boiling point. The highly controversial Taiwan visit was also regrettably cancelled. 

Shortly after the passing of Kubera, the outbreak of Wuhan pneumonia brought the world into a period of anti-pandemic lockdown. However, Zhang’s controversial diplomatic pressure further intensified. In early March, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Kubera’s successor Milos Vystrcil confirmed that Chinese ambassador Zhang sent a threatening letter to the Czech government relating to Kubera’s Taiwan visit. In the letter, Zhang warned that certain Czech enterprises such as Skoda Auto would pay a “painful price” if the President of the Senate were to visit Taiwan. 

After Zhang’s threatening letter was exposed, the Czech Republic was reeling in shock. There were debates amongst politicians on whether they should request “China to replace its ambassador”. On top of this, there were new rounds of conflicts with China relating to (the qualities of) Chinese imported face masks, ventilators and rapid virus test kits. The relationship between China and the Czech Republic began to deteriorate rapidly, entering into a rather awkward phase.

However, the Kubera incident was still far from over. The national Česká televizes' news programme 168 Hodin (168 hours) broadcasted an exclusive interview with Kubera’s widow Vera Kubera and daughter Vendula Vinšová on 26 April. They sorrowfully revealed further details about the kind of heavy threats Kubera received before his death. 

Vera stated that during Kubera’s 30 years in politics, he always opened up to her about his set backs, challenges and other difficult issues. However, about a week before his death “he became very quiet...looked deeply distressed, as though something was wrong”.

According to Vera, she noticed this change in Kubera after he attended the New Year banquet at the President’s residence on 14 January. The official account of the event said that President Zeman and Kubera were enjoying their meal in private, but according to an internal news leak, the two had a heated clash regarding Kubera’s visit to Taiwan. Apparently, President Zeman showed ambassador Zhang Jianmin’s  letter to Kubera warning Skoda would be ‘over’ if Kubera dared to visit Taiwan.

A few days later, Kubera received an invitation from the Chinese embassy to a Chinese New Year banquet with his wife at the Chinese embassy in Prague on 17 January. When they arrived, the consulate office staff requested Vera to be excused for a while. Zhang Jianmin and an interpreter from the Chinese side took Kubera to another room for a “private meeting”.

“There were only the three of them in the room for about 20-30 minutes. Kubera came out looking stressful and angry. He warned me not to eat any food and drink provided by the Chinese embassy.” What happened inside the room? Kubera only said, “Ambassador Zhang pressured me not to visit Taiwan.” Kubera said that if he went to Taiwan, Zhang would lose his job and be immediately sent back to Beijing. There was no further dispute after the banquet. However, Kubera collapsed at his office and died from “heart failure” just three days later. 

Vera and her daughter stated that the doctor who provided emergency resuscitation for Kubera indicated that his heart attack did not come suddenly. He was probably showing symptoms before and after 17 January, i.e. the day he went to the Chinese embassy banquet. Kubera’s family noticed that he had frequent chest discomfort and vomiting in those days. Yet the coroner’s report concluded that Kubera “died of natural causes from heart disease”. If that was the case, the death of the President of the Senate should not have aroused much dispute?

“After the passing of my husband, I started to sort out his belongings...I found two newly opened ‘official letters’ in his brief case that were not entered into the database of his office.” Vera mentioned at the TV interview that one of the letters was from the Chinese embassy and the other was from the President’s office. “The content of the two letters were ‘very disturbing’. We do not know what to do with them.”

Vera said she and her daughter were terrified by the letters. They emphasised that “the content of the letters must have led to Kubera’s death.”

What was mentioned in the two letters? Vera and her daughter could not describe the details because the original copy was handed over to Kubera’s successor, the current President of the Senate Miloš Vystrčil, who took charge of the investigation. Vera was emotionally distraught as she recalled the threatening words in letters during other media interviews.

Česká televise said that the two letters were undoubtedly official documents. One of them came from the Chief Staff of the President’s office Vratislav Mynář. The threatening letter was issued by the Chinese embassy. It had an official embassy stamp but was not signed and did not show any name or title.”

According to reported news, the content of the letter from the Chinese ambassador corresponds with the “Chinese revenge” notion rumoured in March. However, it is difficult for outsiders to confirm “whether the letter that frightened Kubera’s family was targeting Kubera personally or his family as a whole.”

On the other hand, previous news mainly focused on the controversial threats coming from Chinese ambassador Zhang Jianmin. “We cannot imagine that the President’s office was only China’s messenger, he likely also co-opted with the Chinese ambassador to menace the Czech’s second-in-command.”

Kubera’s successor Vystrčil indicated that he had sent 3 letters to President Zeman demanding an explanation regarding the scandal of the two intimidation letters. Despite that, both President Zeman and his key China broker Mynář (The Chief Staff of the President Office) refused to participate in the investigation and queries by the parliament. Mynář rebuked media reports stating that Kubera and he were “ong time friends in politics who loved and respected each other...How could he help outsiders bully his own people?”

“My husband was right in saying...that Mynář was despicable,” said Vera. She noted when Kubera was severely pressured by intimidation he never broke his promise to visit Taiwan till the day he died. “That’s right. He insisted on visiting Taiwan. He told us, ‘Nobody could stop me even in the era of communist dictatorship! Now Czech is in a democratic era. I have no reason to bow down to such pressure!’”

“I am proud of what my dad did because he stood firm, even though in our eyes, he died because of it,” Kubera’s daughter stated. Vera openly pinned President Zeman as the culprit of Kubera’s death behind the scenes even though Zeman insisted that he was a long time good friend of Kubera and he planned to award Kubera the highest posthumous honour of the country. 

“My husband deserves the highest honour of the country...but we could not accept this through the dirty hands of Zeman.”

Source: 

https://global.udn.com/global_vision/story/8662/4523989?fbclid=IwAR1m8LL3bDDEAgIcH04J3sp0LBlEU-R9xvZcBdCO5mQK1ex2utvHjdL34JI