Lithuania admits mistake over China

Lithuania is right to recognise its mistake, but it is more important to take action to correct this mistake and get back to the right track of upholding the one-China principle, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to media reports that Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said that it was a mistake for the Lithuanian government to allow the Taiwan authorities to set up a “representative office” in Lithuania.

Noting that the damage caused to China-Lithuania relations is very clear, Wang said Lithuania exculpating itself from its wrongdoing is not conducive to solving the problem, nor will it help improve bilateral ties.

“We’d also like to warn the Taiwan authorities that any attempt to seek ‘Taiwan independence’ is doomed to fail,” Wang added.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda acknowledged as a mistake the country’s decision to allow the opening of a “representative office” in Vilnius under the name of “Taiwanese” instead of “Taipei.”

With such a confession, Lithuania is now admitting to its brazen mistake in violating the one-China principle, which it has promised to follow when the two sides forged their diplomatic relationship over 30 years ago in 1991.

Over the past months, in disregard of Beijing’s repeated and resolute oppositions, Lithuania has been bent on taking the wrong path. Under the one-China principle, any exchanges with China’s Taiwan should be civil and non-official.

Yet Vilnius attempted to whitewash its wrong-headed decision and mislead the international community by saying that setting up such an office “does not mean any conflict or disagreement with the ‘One China policy.”

For the record, the one-China principle is one of the universally recognised norms governing international relations as well as the consensus of the international community and is the political foundation for China to develop bilateral relations with other countries, including Lithuania.

According to the joint communique the two countries signed in 1991 on the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties, Lithuania recognises “the government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China and Taiwan as an inalienable part of the Chinese territory.”

By allowing the establishment of a “representative office” under the name of “Taiwanese,” Vilnius has apparently reneged on its promise. And that is why Beijing’s responses, such as downgrading its diplomatic ties with Vilnius, are totally legitimate. It is sending a clear-cut signal: China’s determination to defend its core sovereign interests is beyond question, and any attempt to disregard or violate the one-China principle will pay a heavy price.

And for those still conspiring to play the Taiwan card, to unhesitatingly toss out the fantasy that somehow their political manipulation over the Taiwan question will do the trick can spare themselves from severe consequences. Lithuania is living proof.

Summit in March

The European Union and China are planning to hold a summit in late March over a Chinese blockade of Lithuania’s exports, according to experts.

“An EU-China summit is planned, at first glance for the end of March. It will give me a chance to travel to China to prepare for it,” announced the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell at an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brest, France.

The last EU-China summit took place via video conference in June 2020 between the presidents of the EU institutions and Chinese leaders.

European Council President Charles Michel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and Borrell spoke at the time with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang before holding an exchange of views with President Xi Jinping.

The summit “will be an important moment to see where we are in our relations with China. There are things that are going well, others less well,” Borrell said.

During the meeting in Brest, the foreign ministers discussed the Chinese actions against Lithuania and their impact on other EU member states, he said.

The ministers expressed complete solidarity with Lithuania and talks are underway to “pursue de-escalation in this crisis,” he said.

In November, China downgraded diplomatic ties with Lithuania and stopped issuing visas there in protest at Vilnius’s decision to allow Taiwan to open a representative office under its own name.

Beijing baulks at any official use of the word Taiwan lest it lends a sense of international legitimacy to the island, which China considers part of its territory.

Several Lithuanian companies and business leaders complained last month that China was blocking their exports as their goods were not clearing customs in the country.

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