Lavish preparations for visit by Chinese president spark controversy

Police in Prague on Friday briefly detained a man who cut off two of the Chinese flags which are being put up in Prague in a lavish show of welcome for Chinese President Xi Jinping who is due to arrive in Prague for a two day visit on Monday. Tight security measures will be in place in several parts of the city, including Prague Castle, the Office of the Government and the president’s country seat at Lány which President Xi Jinping will be visiting. The preparations have raised protests from Prague’s sixth district whose mayor compared flags and billboards with greetings in Czech and Chinese to state visits by communist officials before the fall of the Iron Curtain.