Final Word from Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Czechs have enjoyed tremendous economic advancement over the past 30 years and can thank China for a large part of it. In the past 10 years alone, according to United Nations trade figures, Czechs have imported $177bn in goods from China and sent $18bn in return. Czechs consume as many Chinese goods in one year as they sell to China in a decade. Those who didn't anticipate the military rise of China that was on such display yesterday didn't want to see it. They didn't want to admit that they were enabling it. Much in the fashion of the "Thanks but Leave" movement of 1999 against Miloš Zeman and Václav Klaus, many Czechs now want the Chinese to just go away. Yet they are refusing, just as Klaus and Zeman did 20 years ago. Czech PM Andrej Babiš won't even speak to Amb. Zhang Jianmin, and Culture Min. Lubomír Zaorálek has publicly called him a liar, but Zhang isn't going anywhere. He'll keep telling Czechs what to do until they listen. [ Czech Republic deficit surplus foreign ambassador ČSSD army ]