bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

quizIds

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Letters

Lithuania is playing the victim, telling the European Union and the world the Chinese government has an official embargo on its products because of its ties with Taiwan. China on the other hand denies that it is exerting economic pressure. Who is in the wrong?
What have the World Trade Organization and the European Union done to help settle this dispute for their members? If these organisations are toothless, they should considering dissolving themselves.
Chinese businesses may choose not to buy goods from countries that are seen as supporting a stance against China’s sovereignty. Lithuania could ask Taiwan to replace Chinese purchasing power instead.
Joseph Chan, chairman, Silk Road Economic Development Research Centre
Chinese consumers are a geopolitical force to reckon with
I refer to “China’s trade tactics are winning out over US diplomacy and military might in Southeast Asia” (January 13). Before any nation might successfully compel China to do anything it doesn’t really want to, that external force must at least possess a consumer base, thus a trade bargaining chip, compatible with China’s nearly 1.5 billion consumers.
Even then, China’s restrictive control over its own business sector and market may give it an edge over foreign free market nations. Military threats from abroad are unlikely to intimidate Chinese officials; if anything, foreign sabre-rattling would just make China more obstinate. The only thing that might have an effect on China involves its economy, via the international marketplace.
Maybe some securely allied nations combining their resources could go without the usual Beijing trade or investment tether they’d prefer to sever, instead trading necessary goods and services between themselves and other interested non-allied, non-China-bound economies.
Then, again, maybe such an alliance has already been covertly discussed but rejected due to Chinese government strategists knowing how to “divide and conquer” potential alliance nations by using economic or political door wedges custom-made for each nation. Perhaps every country typically placing their own economic and big-business bottom line interests foremost may always be their, and therefore collectively our, Achilles’ heel to be exploited by nations with huge markets like China.
Frank Sterle Jnr, British Columbia, Canada


EU warns of ‘deterioration of fundamental freedoms’ in China during human rights talks

US and EU should welcome Chinese manufacturing, not try to shut it out

‘Elephants trampling on global trade’: EU sidelined by US-China showdown

Chinese tech champions from Tencent to Unitree boost European ties amid US trade war

China-EU relations

Lithuania and China: who is in the wrong?

A staff member of Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation covers a simplified Chinese label with a traditional Chinese label on a bottle of rum from Lithuania at a cargo storage area, in Taoyuan, Taiwan, on January 22. Photo: Reuters 

What Europe’s border crisis means for China’s EU trade links

Polish security forces guard the Belarus-Poland border on November 18. Photo: DPA

Why is tiny Lithuania challenging the Big Panda?

The Lithuanian Embassy in Beijing. Photo: AFP

Opinion


Readers discuss the Lithuania-China trade conflict, and what it would take for a nation to compel China to do something it doesn’t want to



Readers discuss the Lithuania-China trade conflict, and what it takes for a nation to compel China to do something it doesn’t want to.


Letters | Lithuania and China: who is in the wrong?

Readers discuss the Lithuania-China trade conflict, and what it would take for a nation to compel China to do something it doesn’t want to

Chinese consumers are a geopolitical force to reckon with