Editor's note: Bradley Blankenship is a Prague-based American journalist, political analyst and freelance reporter. The article reflects the author's opinions, not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The European Union (EU) finds itself in a very precarious situation in many ways as it struggles for unity in trying times. The COVID-19 pandemic has already shown the cracks that exist in the bloc, as many member states threaten to pull away. Meanwhile, others stress the need for reconciliation. Aside from the obvious ways in which the EU is being tested right now, foreign policy departures among member states are also proving to be difficult. A new internal row in the Czech Republic highlights the exact extent of these fractures and why the EU must be resolute in its unity in foreign policy.

On Tuesday, President of the Czech Senate Milos Vystrcil announced that he would undertake a visit to Taiwan – an endorsement of separatist forces and a violation of the One-China policy that the Czech Republic officially follows. Vystrcil did so citing "principles" without first consulting high constitutional officials who were critical of such an action. Some Czech politicians and public figures called foul on a Chinese response, decrying retaliation for attacks on China's sovereignty as somehow an attack on Czech sovereignty. 

The planned trip by Vystrcil was originally planned by his predecessor, Jaroslav Kubera, before his untimely death in late January. A letter was revealed, allegedly from the Chinese embassy, which made clear that China would take action if its sovereignty were breached.

At the same time that this non-scandal was unfolding, and Europe became the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, China immediately placed resources at the Czech Republic's disposal despite this bizarre shown by some Czech figures. China supplied around 2,000 tons of respirators and other materials sold for roughly 160 million U.S. dollars that were a gamechanger for the country's extremely successful response in managing the crisis.

So-called journalists, embarrassed by their country being helped by China – who they irrationally despise – began to circulate easily identifiable lies. For example, the local news website irozhlas.cz published a story with the headline "Coronavirus rapid tests from China have an error rate of up to 80 percent," which was later proven false by health officials when it turned out that the subject of the interview for the story, a medical worker, read the instructions on the tests wrong. This was confirmed by then-Deputy Health Minister Roman Prymula and the medical worker herself several days later.

Many of these false reports were circulated to the American media, for example, Fox News, who used these debunked stories and statements from cavalier local officials to diminish China's critical role in the country's success. A somewhat popular YouTube video by an English expatriate in the Czech Republic embodied this push by describing the Czech Republic's success in dealing with the crisis as a "model" for Europe but credited "important information" learned from Taiwan while omitting the 2,000 tons of Chinese aid from his script.

Some cavalier public officials stated that they would have rejected any Chinese aid and have categorized the very critical air bridge with China as being somehow nefarious. Other figures in the Czech media insisted that the country get tough on perceived foreign meddling, especially from China. One columnist wrote in May that "we are no longer anyone's servants" and that "Czech authorities should change their submissive behavior as soon as possible and make it clear that they will not like the attempts by Chinese power to push Czech politics."

EU officials have dismissed such naivety in dealing with China. At the same time that petty squabbles took place in Prague on Tuesday, the China-EU High-Level Strategic Dialogue also took place with a quite positive outcome. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, agreed on promoting bilateral ties between China and the EU and a push towards multilateralism. This is a welcome step forward for any reasonable person, but apparently not to many in the Czech Republic.

Many of these figures in the Czech Republic constantly raise the alarm on "disinformation" and "foreign influence" from some countries (and conveniently not others) yet peddle in disinformation, lining their pockets from paid columns, features stories, lucrative job offers, and university positions. The level of sheer self-deception at play is actually extraordinary and is endemic to much of Central and Eastern Europe, not just the Czech Republic.

For the Czech Republic, this is not an isolated incident – there is widespread incoherence in foreign policy in regards to not only China, but also Russia, Israel, and perhaps even the United States soon over a newly proposed digital tax.

However, this specific situation highlights the extent to which a struggle for national identity on the world stage can regress into a departure from reality for a nation's intellectual class. This irrational insistence on demonizing China reflects a regrettable type of national chauvinism that was rejected by Europe long ago as being not only unbefitting of a united Europe but also dangerous. Such behavior could regrettably damage the common EU vision of pragmatism and multilateralism.

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