Zeman’s Chinese Aide Ye Jianming Jailed: CEFC At Risk

Milos Zeman Ye Jianming

Prague, March 16 (CTK) – Czech Communist (KSCM) leader Vojtech Filip wants to talk to President Milos Zeman about the case of the allegedly arrested China Energy Company Limited (CEFC) board chairman Ye Jianming who is Zeman’s adviser, he told journalists today.

 

Ye Jianming was reportedly arrested in China in February. Neither CEFC nor Chinese authorities have confirmed the detention officially. Ye Jianming is allegedly suspected of having committed an economic crime.

 

The Czech Presidential Office sent its head Vratislav Mynar and influential presidential adviser Martin Nejedly to China to check it this week. Jaroslav Tvrdik, who heads the CEFC Group (Europe) Company, left for China along with them.

 

Zeman’s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek told CTK Mynar and Nejedly were to return from China by the end of the week and he would hear of the result of their trip next week.

 

Filip said he did not have to go to China as he discussed Ye’s case with the head of the Central and East Europe section of the international department of the Chinese Communist Party in Prague today. However, he did not provide any information on the case.

 

Filip said he previously told Zeman that some CEFC steps seem ill-considered from the perspective of the Czech-Chinese strategic partnership agreement signed two years ago.

 

He said the Czech Republic can have a very important position in Europe thanks to the partnership agreement, which increases the country’s prestige for other EU members, especially Germany which sought such partnership with China, too.

 

Filip said the Czech managers of CEFC Group (Europe) should deal with their problems on their own.

 

Czech analyst Anna Zadrapalova, from the Sinopsis institute, said it is noteworthy that Zeman’s envoys left for China in such a haste that they missed the celebration of Zeman’s presidential inauguration held on Wednesday.

 

She said Ye’s investigation is held behind closed doors. Moreover, Chinese officials will hardly find time to talk to the Czech envoys because crucial political meetings are held in China these days.

 

“It seems likely that they will try to explain in Beijing how the whole affair violates Czech-Chinese relations in which President Zeman and his advisors invested their political capital,” Zadrapalova told CTK.

 

CEFC has chosen the Czech Republic as a centre for its European activities. It has also bought stakes in several Czech companies.

 

In 2015, President Milos Zeman appointed Ye Jianming as his special economic adviser. Ye still remains in this post and Zeman will take further steps after he receives official information from China.

 

The CEFC group is engaged mainly in the sectors of energy, finance and industry.