Beijing recalls Vilnius envoy over Taiwan ‘embassy’ row
CHINA recalled its ambassador to Lithuania yesterday after the European nation allowed Taiwan to open a de facto embassy using its own name.
Beijing also demanded that Vilnius withdraw its own envoy to China as the row escalated.
Its demands are the latest in a series of angry diplomatic salvos against any nation seen to be building closer ties with Taiwan, which the Chinese Communist Party claims as its own territory even though it has never ruled there.
In July, Taiwan’s foreign ministry announced it would set up a “representative office” in Lithuania, confirming it would be the first office in Europe to specifically be called “Taiwanese”, although there are similar offices elsewhere. Vilnius plans to open a reciprocal office in Taipei.
The move was supported by the United States but raised hackles in China, which considers Taiwan to be its most sensitive territorial issue.
Yesterday, the foreign ministry accused Vilnius of undermining China’s sovereignty and said allowing the office to open under the name of Taiwan was done “in disregard of China’s repeated representations and articulation of potential consequences”. In a statement it added: “We urge the Lithuanian side to immediately rectify its wrong decision, take concrete measures to undo the damage, and not to move further down the wrong path.”
It also warned the Taiwanese government that independence “is a dead end”.
China has stepped up pressure on countries not to engage with Taiwan in
‘We urge the Lithuanian side to rectify its wrong decision and take concrete steps to undo the damage’
recent years, while threatening to annex the island of 24 million people by force if necessary. But Taiwan’s relations with eastern European nations have become warmer in recent months – some of them former Soviet satellite states wary of Chinese authoritarianism – and Lithuania, in particular, has shown explicit support, including donating Covid-19 vaccines to Taipei.
Kuan-ting Chen, chief executive of the Taiwan Nextgen Foundation think tank, praised Lithuania – “a small but mighty nation” – for standing up to “petty intimidation”.