Abstract
Czechoslovakia intended to use its advanced industry and education to create a positive image in China. Political leadership ordered Czecholovak Academy of Sciences to develop its relationship with China even in a period when foreign academic exchange was on the whole severely restricted.
China used the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences for training of its specialists, but there were few benefits in the other direction. An attempt to establish a more wide-ranging cooperation in late 1950s was thwarted by Chinese political campaigns, economic crisis and lack of interest in areas not directly applicable in practice.
Nevertheless, both academies regularly expressed interest in continued cooperation and signed yearly exchange agreements until the Cultural Revolution in 1966. It appears to be driven by political demands from without much mutually beneficial content on the ground.