Chinese officials downgraded their relations with Lithuania and threatened further diplomatic and economic punishments in a dispute over the Baltic state’s relations with Taiwan that could shape trans-Atlantic attitudes toward Beijing.
“We will take all necessary measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity and safeguard core interests,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Monday, per an official press briefing transcript. “What we should all be watching for next is whether Lithuania intends to go further down the wrong path to the point of no return or to mend its ways before it’s too late.”
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Lithuanian officials have adopted a more confrontational posture toward China in recent years, culminating in the decision to allow Taiwan, an island democracy that the mainland regime claims for itself, to open a de facto embassy under its own name. Chinese officials, who oppose any contact between Taiwan and other governments, took special offense at the fact that the diplomatic outpost is named the “Taiwanese Representative Office,” rather than flying a more deferential flag, such as the “Chinese Taipei” label that Taiwanese athletes must use at the Olympics.
“This act openly creates the false impression of ‘one China, one Taiwan’ in the world,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, arguing that Lithuania’s diplomatic relations with Beijing are contingent on the Baltic nation’s refusal to deal with Taiwan. “The Chinese side expresses its strong indignation and protest against this move and decides to downgrade its diplomatic relations with Lithuania to the chargé d’affaires level.”
Lithuania’s overture to Taiwan is the latest controversy with Beijing, as ideological sympathy for the beleaguered pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong reinforced suspicions about Chinese Communist espionage and Beijing’s desire for a controlling stake in a key Lithuanian port. Those dynamics were reinforced by the politics of the coronavirus pandemic, culminating this year in Lithuania’s withdrawal from a ballyhooed economic dialogue between China and more than a dozen of the smaller European nations.
Lithuania is also a member of the European Union and NATO, both of which operate as consensus-driven organizations, giving the Baltic country the potential to influence the policy of larger European countries such as Germany and France.
“It’s useful, just symbolically, to have a European country tell the Chinese just to stuff it,” the American Enterprise Institute’s Derek Scissors said. “We have these examples of countries in Europe that can affect the EU acting, in Europe, as fronts for the Chinese. … It’s useful to have somebody on the other side.”
Chinese diplomats hinted at their concern that other European nations might follow Lithuania’s example by conflating Lithuania with the broader EU.
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“This act in bad faith has created an egregious precedent internationally. The Lithuanian government must bear all the ensuing consequences,” said Zhao, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman. “The remarks by the EU side disregard facts and obviously run counter to the commitment it made to the People’s Republic of China upon establishing diplomatic relations in 1975.”
