Lithuania announced on Wednesday (December 15th) that it had evacuated all the staff working in its embassy in Beijing. Nineteen people – diplomats and their families – embarked, under the watch of plainclothes police, aboard a minibus bound for the airport in a dignified atmosphere “From a cold war thriller” according to The Economist.
On November 18, Lithuania authorized the opening of a representative office of Taiwan in Vilnius, angering Beijing, which tolerates representative offices in Taipei, the name of the island’s capital, but not Taiwan. China then decided to reduce the level of representation between the People’s Republic of China and Lithuania. Beijing no longer granted visas to Lithuanians and diplomats stationed in the Chinese capital had until December 14 to return their accreditation to the authorities. Not knowing whether they would continue to enjoy diplomatic protection, Lithuania, which rejects the demotion of its diplomatic representation, has ordered its staff not to hand over their papers to China but to leave the country.
The Lithuanian ambassador to China had already had to leave China in August, when Vilnius announced the opening of the Taiwan office, and Beijing had for its part recalled its ambassador to the small Baltic state. On Wednesday, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said it had “ recalled to Vilnius for consultation his interim charge d’affaires ». “In the absence of a substitute diplomat, the Lithuanian Embassy in China will continue its operations remotely”, indicates the press release. Vilnius says to himself “Ready to continue the dialogue with China and restore the functions of its embassy to their integrity once a mutually beneficial agreement has been reached.”
Tensions between Beijing and the EU
This diplomatic dispute is accompanied by economic pressure from Beijing. At the beginning of December, a ” Technical problem “ would have prevented Chinese customs from accepting any imports from Lithuania. On December 8, the European Union declared itself “Ready to stand up against any type of political pressure and coercive measures taken against a member state”, specifying that “The development of bilateral relations with one of the member states has an impact on all EU-China relations”. On the same day, the European Union presented a new legal tool enabling it to respond to States exercising “Deliberate economic pressure” on a member of the EU.
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