Beijing’s threats that the Czech Republic would have to pay a “heavy price” after a senior Czech politician visited Taiwan was “more bark than bite”, analysts said.

Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil concluded a five-day business visit to Taiwan on Friday, with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticizing Vystrcil for “his short-sighted actions and political opportunism” and that the Chinese people would not “sit idly by.”

Any actions taken by China to follow up on those threats would have a limited impact on the Czech Republic, two analysts told Voice of America.

“It’s kind of a bluff because China’s afraid of more countries building relations with Taiwan. So, they wanted to just put everybody off,” Jeremy Garlick, assistant professor of international relations at the University of Economics in Prague, was quoted in the VOA report on Saturday.

“It’s kind of a question — the bark is worse than the bite because I don’t really see what China can really do to the Czech Republic,” he said.

Richard Turcsányi, director of the Central European Institute of Asian Studies at Palacky University in the Czech Republic, said it was possible for China to retaliate by canceling direct flights between the two countries. They could also prohibit Chinese tourists from visiting Prague and ban the sale of Czech beer.

However those moves would have little effect on the country as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic had already dealt a blow to direct flights. Prague has been overwhelmed with tourists in the past five years, and had already been considering capping the number of visitors to the city, he said.

Despite the strong words from Wang, Turcsányi believes Beijing still needs Europe now more than ever as Sino-American relations continue to worsen.

“I think the Chinese government will try to balance this kind of need to be tough, and then not to risk undermining the relationship with Europe too much,” he said.

Wang’s threats had prompted criticism from European Union leaders, but also anger from local Czech politicians.

Pavel Novotny, a mayor of the Prague district Reporyje, called Wang an “impudent, thoughtless, uncouth clown” in a scathing letter sent to the foreign minister earlier this week and demanded an immediate apology to be delivered within 24 hours.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play