Lithuania's China Policy: Don't be afraid of Beijing's red lines

China not only recalled its ambassador from Lithuania on Tuesday.

It also called on the government in Vilnius to withdraw its ambassador from China as well.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs cited Taiwan's plans to open a “Taiwan Representative Office” in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

Beijing is particularly offended by the name.

From his point of view, that sounds too much like the message of an independent country.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

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For comparison: The Taiwanese representation in Germany is officially called the “Taipei Representation”, and the German representation in Taipei is called the “German Institute” because, like most countries in the world, the federal government does not officially recognize Taiwan as an independent state. In no European country has there been an agency with “Taiwan” in its name. Beijing called on Lithuania to "immediately revise its wrong decision, take concrete action to repair the damage and stop going the wrong way."

China evidently fears that the Lithuanian example could set a precedent.

This is evidently alluded to by the Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis when he told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday that "Lithuania will continue its policy because it is not only the policy of Lithuania, but the policy of many European countries".

The minister described China's decision as "disappointing".

The next steps are still being discussed.

"Addressing human rights and forced labor"

The Taiwan question is by no means the only issue on which Beijing and Vilnius disagree. In the past few months, Lithuania had campaigned aggressively in the European Union for a tougher approach to China. In May Lithuania announced its withdrawal from the discussion format “17 plus one” and asked other EU states to do the same. China created the format in 2012 for exchanges with then 16 Central and Eastern European countries (including twelve EU members).

In an interview with the FAZ in March, Landsbergis said that “this format was accompanied by divisive tendencies in the EU and greater political pressure from China”. In addition, the hoped-for investments “fell short of expectations”. The Foreign Minister had also called for “human rights and forced labor” to be addressed more clearly in the exchange with China at the European level. "We are watching how China tries to invade Europe with its values," Landsbergis told the FAZ

There is also criticism of the discussion format “17 plus one” in other participating countries from the EU.

In private they complain about the lack of investment and the arrogance with which Beijing dominates the agenda of the talks.

Out of consideration for economic relations, however, this criticism is less clearly expressed outside of Lithuania.

The decreasing interest was evident at the most recent video summit in February, when six countries were only represented by ministers instead of heads of government.

Because President Xi Jinping personally chaired the summit, it was seen as an affront to China.

Military pressure has the opposite effect

In the course of its anti-China policy, Lithuania had recently forged closer ties with the democratically governed Taiwan. Among other things, the country of Taiwan gave 20,000 doses of AstraZeneca's corona vaccine after the Taipei government complained that China had delayed Taiwanese efforts to buy BioNTech vaccines. Slovakia also donated 10,000 doses of vaccine to Taiwan. In Beijing, this was also criticized as an attack on Chinese sovereignty. China was also angry that the Lithuanian parliament, like the Belgian and Dutch parliaments, called Chinese human rights violations in the Xinjiang region “genocide” and “crimes against humanity”.

Just a few days ago, Lithuania announced that it would also open a “representative office” in Taiwan by the end of the year and on this occasion send the deputy foreign or economic minister to Taipei. That should not have soothed the displeasure in Beijing. The Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Lithuania had "ignored repeated objections and indications of potential consequences." By agreeing to the Taiwanese mission, Vilnius has violated the spirit of the agreement that China and Lithuania made when establishing diplomatic relations and "seriously undermined the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China." This crossed a red line.

China regards Taiwan as part of its territory. Its complicated international status is a legacy of the Chinese civil war. Its losers, the leadership and troops of the Republic of China, fled to Taiwan in 1949. They represented China at the United Nations until 1971. Then the People's Republic of China took over the seat. More and more countries established diplomatic relations with Beijing and downgraded their relations with Taipei. Currently only 14 countries in the world and the Holy See recognize the Republic of China, i.e. Taiwan. The government in Beijing is trying by all means to isolate the Taiwanese government internationally. However, the military threats against Taiwan in particular have had the opposite effect. The United States has recently intensified its relations with Taipei.