Business is the overwhelming theme of the Chinese president’s trip the Czech Republic. For supporters of the warmer relations between Prague and Beijing, the payoff will be Chinese investment, industrial, research, educational cooperation and jobs. For the doubters, the price in curbing criticism of China is high and they are skeptical about the returns, says Radio Praha.

Czech media on Tuesday highlighted how neighbouring countries such as Poland and Slovakia also experienced the short-lived Chinese euphoria during presidential visits to their countries over the previous five years. They too received strategic partner status.

But Slovakia has seen thin results from the 2009 visit is the succeeding years. Poland’s incoming Chinese investment stands at just over 4 billion crowns since becoming a strategic partner in 2011. A highly publicized project for Chinese companies to build a 50 kilometer stretch of motorway between Warsaw and Berlin had to be cancelled after it ran into troubles. That, the reports suggest, could be a warning not to get too carried away, Radio Praha wrote..

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