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The Lithuanian embassy in Beijing on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

‘We don’t respond well to threats’: Lithuania faces off against China, Belarus

  • As China recalled its ambassador to Lithuania on Tuesday, lawmakers discuss the spiralling migrant crisis on its border with Belarus
  • Over the course of 2021, Lithuania has emerged as China’s staunchest critic in the European Union
As China recalled its ambassador to Lithuania on Tuesday and urged Vilnius to do the same, lawmakers in the Baltic state were holding an extraordinary plenary session to discuss the spiralling migrant crisis on its border with Belarus.
Some lawmakers said they hoped the fact that the diplomatic feud happened during the debate would strengthen the government’s resolve against all challengers. Lithuania has accused Belarus of using migrants to apply pressure to the European Union to reverse biting sanctions on the country.
“We don’t respond well to threats. We survived a Communist regime for over half a century and we are not responding to threats from the Russian authoritarian regime. We are a Western, independent country, and we are not going to allow China or Belarus or Russia to somehow dictate that,” said opposition Social Democratic Party MP Dovile Sakaliene, a vocal China critic who was sanctioned by Beijing in March.

China recalls envoy to Lithuania over Taiwan’s de facto embassy move

Lithuania was the first republic to declare independence from the Soviet Union and Sakaliene said because the diplomatic row coincided with a debate on Belarusian and Russian influence in the Baltics, it was a reminder of this authoritarian history.

Over the course of 2021, Lithuania has emerged as China’s staunchest critic in the European Union.

This year it dropped out of a forum of 17 Central and Eastern European nations organised by China to grow ties with the region and been an early mover on vaccine provision to Taiwan.
To Beijing’s escalating ire, it also agreed to open a representative office bearing the name “Taiwan” rather than “Taipei”, as is customary in other parts of the EU.

Beijing said this contravenes the EU’s one-China policy, but in a statement on Tuesday, the EU disagreed.

Later on Tuesday, the US administration expressed its solidarity with Lithuania and condemned Beijing’s decision to recall its ambassador from Vilnius and demand that Lithuania recall its envoy from China.

‘Nothing to lose’: Europe’s Baltic states brushing off China

“We support our European partners and our allies as they develop mutually beneficial relations with Taiwan and resist the [People’s Republic of China’s] coercive behaviour,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a regular briefing.

“Each country should be able to determine the contours of its own one-China policy, without outside coercion,” he added.

Zygimantas Pavilionis, chair of Lithuania’s Foreign Affairs Committee and former ambassador to the United States, said that Vilnius would likely recall its ambassador because “usually we act in reciprocity”. He described Beijing’s move as an “application of double standards”.

“We want mutual respect. We have the same rights as the Germans or French or Italians or Belgium or Dutch. If they develop their economic relations with Taiwan, they seek the respect from the Chinese side. We hope for the same. We don’t want to be treated as kind of second-class citizens,” Pavilionis added.

But not everyone in Lithuania is on board with the hardline strategy on China.

Shadow foreign minister Giedrius Surplys said the Taiwan situation could have been handled more diplomatically, and permitting a “Taiwan office” rather than a “Taipei office” was unnecessary.

The Chinese embassy building in Vilnius, Lithuania in July. Photo: EPA-EFE

While making clear he is “strictly for human rights, democracy and international law”, Surplys said he has “always opposed the methods and rhetoric the current government has chosen”.

“As a diplomat by education, I have always supported honest and open dialogue with the official Beijing. These are our values and we would like them to be respected. However, we respect the People’s Republic of China and we want to remain in cooperation,” he said.

Analysts were not surprised by China’s action, given the series of diplomatic spats over the past year.

Una Aleksandra Berzina-Cerenkova, head of the China Studies Centre at Riga Stradins University in neighbouring Latvia, said Lithuania’s behaviour can in part be explained by the coalition-building efforts of the Biden administration.

“It has some good backing. Lithuania is a very transatlantically-minded country … It has seen that, in fact, this Washington position towards Taiwan is more supportive than it has been in the last decade,” Berzina-Cerenkova said.

Vilnius had expected a boost to trade and investment with China when signing up to the 17+1 grouping, but the windfall did not arrive.

Analysis of detailed Chinese customs data shows that Lithuania’s trade deficit with China ballooned by nearly 33 per cent over the first half of 2021, to US$820.7 million. Lithuania’s exports to China were actually 4 per cent lower in the first six months of this year than the same period of 2020.

“Unlike some bigger European countries that are trying to sit on two chairs, one of values and at the same time the pragmatism chair, when it comes to China, Lithuania doesn’t have very much to lose,” said Berzina-Cerenkova.

Additional reporting by Owen Churchill

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