Lithuania is a small country with just 2.8 million inhabitants. But that didn’t stop her from defying mighty China.
In recent months, the Baltic nation has intensified its relationship with Taiwan, which upsets Beijing, which considers the island part of its territory.
In the latest episode of this tension, the European country allowed Taiwan to open an embassy in its territory. China’s response has been to downgrade its diplomatic ties with Lithuania.
We explain the background to this dispute and how Lithuania is dealing with the Asian giant.
A MATTER OF NOMENCLATURE
The dispute began recently when Taiwan announced that its office in Lithuania would be renamed “Taiwan Representative Office”.
Soon after, in August, China withdrew its ambassador from Lithuania.
Other Taiwan offices across Europe and the United States use the name of the country’s capital, Taipei, to avoid a reference to the island itself.
China classifies it as a rebel province, but Taiwan considers itself independent.
Taiwan’s new Lithuania office, which opened on November 18, is the island’s first new diplomatic post in Europe in 18 years.
And while the opening is not an official diplomatic relationship, it can be seen as a sign of closer ties between the two locations.
The Asian giant’s Foreign Ministry responded by saying Lithuania’s action “undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and created a “bad precedent in the international sphere”.
The representatives also said that the decision would reduce their diplomatic commitment to the country, which would be treated at the level of chargé d’affaires, one grade less than that of ambassador.
Under the principle of “one China”, Beijing insists that Taiwan is an inalienable part of a China that will one day be reunited.
On the other hand, the “one China” policy is diplomatic recognition of Beijing’s position that there is only one Chinese government.
Under this policy, Beijing does not agree to maintain relations with nations that recognize the island, which has meant that very few places have ties to Taipei.
Today, only 14 nations, apart from the Vatican, maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Most are small islands, although some Central American countries such as Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua also stand out. Paraguay is the only South American country that recognizes it.
But the opening of the office was not the only point of friction between the two countries.
In September, the European country’s Defense Ministry urged Lithuanians with Chinese phones to discard them and avoid buying them.
According to a report by the National Cyber Security Center, one phone from Xiaomi had built-in censorship tools, while another model from Huawei had security holes.
Huawei said user data is not sent abroad from their phones, and Xiaomi said it does not censor communications.
RELATIONSHIP WITH TAIWAN
Lithuania, which in recent years has become a center of reference in financial technology, defends its right to have links with Taiwan, a leading supplier of semiconductors, lasers and other components to the high-tech industry, but says it respects the policy of “one China”.
“Lithuania reaffirms its adherence to the ‘one China’ policy, but at the same time it has the right to expand cooperation with Taiwan and to accept and establish non-diplomatic missions to ensure the practical development of these relations, as many other countries do. The reception of Taiwanese representation in Lithuania is based on economic interests,” the Lithuanian government said in a statement.
The opening of the office in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, was the latest in a series of rapprochements between the two locations.
Several public figures and politicians from the Baltic country signed an open letter to President Gitanas Nauseda in 2020, in which they called on the nation to support Taiwan’s independence and inclusion in the UN World Health Assembly.
In addition, Lithuania donated 20,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine to Taiwan in June.
But why is Lithuania interested in strengthening ties with Taiwan, at the risk of angering a power like China?
In part, this has to do with the Asian island’s position as a supplier of high-tech products, explains Konstantinas Andrijauskas of the Vilnius University’s Institute of International Relations and Political Science to BBC News Mundo, the BBC’s Spanish service. .
But, also, “Lithuania’s general foreign policy approach is to try to diversify and deepen its relations with a very large group of countries in the Indo-Pacific region”, explains the expert, citing the examples of South Korea and Singapore.
“Thus, Lithuania is very willing to emphasize in diplomatic and economic terms its relationship with liberal democracies, or at least with electoral democracies such as Singapore, because it feels that economic relations with authoritarian countries do not bring as many benefits” , adds the teacher.
“Lithuania has been dealing for decades not only with China, but also with Russian and Belarusian neighbors, and our experience suggests that these deep economic relationships do not bring prosperity,” he continues.
“These nations don’t really bring security because authoritarian countries tend to emphasize the economic context to pursue their geopolitical and political goals,” he concludes.
The Lithuanian government itself recognizes the strategy. Deputy Minister Mantas Adomėnas told BBC News Mundo that the current government “emphasizes support for democracy and human rights around the world” and considers Taiwan “a very important bastion of democracy”.
“There are also historical ties, as Taiwan has never recognized the Soviet occupation of Lithuania and we have a kind of debt [com eles]”, explica Domain.
“And finally, [Taiwan] it is a very progressive country, extremely dynamic, which shows the best advantages of the free market system and the democratic political regime”, he concludes.
LITTLE TO LOSE
On top of all this, there is something fundamental to understanding why Lithuania allows itself to anger Beijing: unlike what happens with many other countries, Lithuania is not so dependent on Chinese investments, nor on trade with China.
“Our lack of a deep economic link with China is an aspect of the story, but it’s definitely a very important part, because it basically gives us a little bit of room to maneuver,” explains Andrijauskas.
However, China is enforcing import restrictions on material goods and also cutting some exports to Lithuania, which does not leave Vilnius indifferent.
“We still don’t know the exact scope, but it is clearly a violation of international trade rules,” said the Lithuanian deputy minister, adding that the situation will be raised in “international forums and also in the European Union (EU), because it is a sort of an attempt to restrict a Member State”.
“We hope that the EU will take a united and principled stance towards China and the economic coercive measures it is applying towards one of its member states,” argues Adomėnas.
The question of China has really become an uncomfortable topic, both for other European nations, some with important ties to Beijing, and for the EU as a whole, says Andrijauskas.
“Lithuania is, in many ways, a country that can afford to be a whistleblower, but it definitely doesn’t want to harm the relationship of other countries, our partners and allies, with China,” adds the expert. “But she wants to share with the EU a concern she has about China.”
The EU’s relationship with China revolves around three aspects: as a partner in climate and trade policy, as a competitor in the information technology market, and as a rival in terms of the political system and human rights.
The EU defended Lithuania’s right to have ties with Taiwan, but also reaffirmed that the bloc does not question the “one China” policy.
A STORY OF OPPOSITION TO THE GIANTS
This is not the first time that Lithuania has faced a great power.
In 1990, it was the first Soviet republic to declare its independence.
The resistance was led by Vytautas Landsbergis, grandfather of current Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis.
In Andrijauskas’ opinion, in Lithuania there may be a kind of resentment towards China precisely because of the memory left after Moscow’s domination.
“The Soviet Union left a mark and has very peculiar connotations, as many Lithuanians associate the experience as part of the Soviet Union with the experience of the Uighurs, the Tibetans…”, lists the professor.
But the controversies with Russia don’t stop there. Lithuania has also recently taken a stand against one of Moscow’s biggest allies: Belarus and its leader, Alexandr Lukashenko.
Even Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has been living in Lithuania since she fled her country after elections in August 2020.
The real impact of this dispute for Lithuanians remains to be seen, as some have pointed out that it could lose the possibility of doing successful business with China. But for the country’s political class, the issue goes beyond the economy.
“Of course, the hostile reactions of a country of 1.4 billion people are always a cause for concern,” admits Deputy Minister Adomėnas.
“But I would say that this does not change our position on Taiwan, because in the past the blackmail of a totalitarian regime such as the Soviet Union has not led us to back down from our desire for independence.”
In this context, the deputy minister recalls the role played by Iceland, which was the first country to recognize Lithuania’s independence, and which represented an immense moral boost for them.
“So we have this kind of ‘torch’ that Iceland gave us 31 years ago to bring to the Taiwanese, who are also fighting for the survival of their democracy and their way of life.”
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