China to decide on Senate's importance

Senate Pres. Miloš Vystrčil hasn't yet visited Taiwan, so China hasn't yet retaliated. Foreign Min. Tomáš Petříček said in his typical diplomatese in Právo on Sat. that there are no signals so far that there should be any concrete impact on commercial relations. If he and PM Andrej Babiš want to try to avoid a concrete impact on Czech companies, their best bet is to convince the Chinese that the Senate carries no weight anyway. Babiš has already taken a step in this direction by declaring in Deník that it would be best for him if ANO were only active in parliamentary politics, not on the local or regional level, so that he didn't have to deal with the missteps of people he doesn't even know. He made his disdain for the upper chamber of Parliament abundantly clear after the elections in Oct. 2016, when he called the Senate unnecessary and expensive. Vystrčil, for his part, can only hope that China's reaction to his trip will be harsh, thereby making the Senate seem all that more important.