Prague, Sept 9 (CTK) – It would be naive of the Czechs to pin excessive hopes on their business cooperation with China, since China has been opening to them far less than vice versa, and they have not been admitted to an equal competition on the Chinese market, Jan Zizka writes in daily Lidove noviny (LN) Wednesday.
The Czech advocates of bilateral cooperation are right when saying that there is nothing harmful about Chinese investments in the Czech Republic as it is in accordance with the rules of capitalism, Zizka writes.
True, if the Czechs are an open market economy, they should not differentiate between investors according to their ethnicity. Despite this, the above reaction to the fresh wave of Chinese investments is rather naive, Zizka writes.
Logically, markets all over the world have been trying to attract companies from China, which is the most populated country aspiring for a leading position in the world economy. However, voices warning of possible risks have also been heard. They do not prevail, but still they should not be ignored, Zizka writes.
As an example he gives the recent call by a U.S. senator on the Senate to prevent the takeover of Micron Technology, the U.S. producer of memory chips, by a Chinese state company. He warned against the deal’s consequences for national security, because the company produces parts for the U.S. defence systems. He said it is impossible to enable China’s free access to the U.S. market unless the Chinese start respecting the rules of intellectual property protection.
China’s rise in the past decades has largely rested in its unbelievable activity in copying foreign knowhow and technologies. This is no reproach, as other big economic powers behaved similarly to achieve progress in the past. However, there is no reason for the Czechs to ignore the fact, Zizka writes.
The main risks do not rest – for the time being at least – in that Chinese state companies or opaque private firms may achieve an extraordinarily strong political influence in the West, unlike in Africa, where their influence is really strong, Zizka writes.
The West more worries about the risk of Chinese espionage. The Czech counter-intelligence service (BIS), too, warned in 2014 that the technology of the Chinese company Huawei, also widespread in the Czech Republic, has been developed to enable the gaining of sensitive information, Zizka writes.
Maybe such apprehensions are exaggerated, as may be the warnings against the Chinese use of cybernetic attacks in the “economic war,” Zizka continues.
When it turned out in recent years, that Chinese energy producers eyed Britain as a country through which they could enter the European market, some media asked whether Britain should enable China, which wages cybernetic wars, to gain control of British power plants. Finally, the British dismissed the fears as a meaningless conspiracy theory, Zizka writes.
The Chinese assert that they face cyber attacks themselves. This is probably true, but in view of their practice of copying western knowhow, the question arises whether they pursue similar activities in the cyberspace as well, Zizka writes.
Czech exporters in fact have not been admitted to an equal competition on the Chinese market. They are required to produce goods directly in China or hand their know-how straightforward to the Chinese, Zizka continues.
Of course, this may be a solution. Westinghouse, a leading U.S. supplier of nuclear power plants has decided to provide its know-how to the Chinese in exchange for business orders in China. Nevertheless, in this connection, the assertion that Prague must maximally open the Czech door to Chinese entrepreneurs does not seem undisputable, Zizka writes.
Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka is right when he says that the volume of Chinese investments in the Czech Republic is too low to raise any apprehensions of Czechs. However, if further investment waves come, the number of dilemmas faced by Czechs will increase. How would they react if a Chinese state company offered to build the planned new units of the Czech nuclear power plants in Temelin and Dukovany? Zizka asks.
Besides negative aspects, similar offers also bring positive ones. The Chinese capital brings chances for the Czech economy and in the case of nuclear energy, it would be a partnership with a most ambitious country that may become the world leader in this area in the future, Zizka writes.
The West’s economic cooperation with China is a fact that the Czechs cannot ignore. They have to seek opportunities on China’s giant market, but an infatuation with China makes not sense, Zizka continues.
It is known that opportunities in China have been sought by everyone, including Germans, the French and British, whose weight considerably surpasses Prague’s. The Czech effort to enter non-European markets is important, but many Czech companies can definitely fare better elsewhere than in China, Zizka concludes.
