The Czech Republic is the latest country to exclude Chinese companies from its critical infrastructure due to national security concerns. Following Prague’s decision to ban Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE from participating in the country’s 5G telecommunication network in 2019, Czech political parties recently agreed to exclude Chinese firms from bidding for a new nuclear power plant project. The Chinese embassy in the Czech Republic said in response that it was “seriously concerned” and “firmly against” the decision. The Czech Republic plans to build a new plant at the Dukovany Nuclear Power Station to replace the current one, sometime between 2035 and 2037. In 2019, the Czech government first approved the project, and arranged the power station’s current owner and operator CEZ to handle the bidding. CEZ is the largest utility company in central and eastern Europe, with the Czech government owning 70 percent of its shares. According to …