A panel at the Prague Municipal Court will open Czechia's first-ever trial under the offense of "illegal activity for a foreign power" in mid-October, according to iDNES.cz.

The defendant is identified as Jang I-min, whom Czech authorities allege is a member of a Chinese intelligence service who operated in Czechia under journalistic cover. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison, per iDNES.cz.

The case will set the template for how broadly prosecutors and judges interpret the new offense — a precedent any future prosecution, against operatives of any country, will be measured against.

Hypothesis: by choosing a Chinese case to debut the law rather than a Russian one, Czech counterintelligence may be treating Chinese networks as a priority worth public prosecution rather than quiet expulsion. Supporting this: the statute covers any foreign power, yet the test case is China. Against it: one case is a thin sample, and may simply reflect which investigation was furthest along rather than a deliberate strategy.

What to watch: whether the trial produces a conviction, how the court defines "illegal activity" under the new statute, and whether Beijing responds diplomatically to a public espionage trial on EU soil.